Automated Unmanned Rig

Robotic and AI technology have been widely used in the military. The term "Predator" and "FlightHawk" are synonymous to UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) and UCAV (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle) respectively. The US Navy is also building unmanned submarines and sooner or later, we might develop the technology to turn Honda's famous Asimo to Mercs for hire. In Aus, an oil co is developing an unmanned drilling rig which sets up on seabed and is remotely controlled by a vessel at sea level. Umbilicals will be attached to deliver power, cement, drilling fluids and such. This is an ground-breaking development for the oil patch.

4th Best Airport in the world: KLIA & Drilling in the OCS

While we worry about who sodomized who, who should get subsidies, massive traffic jam in the city and the lack of professionalism in the Parliament, we failed to recognize the people at Malaysia Airports for a job well done! Can still improve :)

From Forbes:

On KLIA: This airport has won several accolades since opening in 1998. In addition to ranking forth in Skytrax's World Airport Awards, it also ranked first on the company's list of airports with the best immigration service. While passengers are almost guaranteed a seamless arrival and departure experience, they can also enjoy free wi-fi, luxury shopping and reflexology and massage services.

Down south got second place (still beatable):

Since Skytrax began ranking airports in 1999, Singapore Changi has placed first twice. The airport was built in 1981, and it has since added more terminals that cater to both budget and luxury passengers. The up-to-date services and amenities include an indoor orchid garden, a rooftop swimming pool, themed television lounges and a free sight-seeing tour for those who have at least five hours prior to their connecting flight.

Don't forget the recognition needs to go to Tan Sri Hassan Merican and Petronas staff as well for making us proud!

I also consider the fuel subsidy a closed issue. Let's move on to other interesting stuff like a standardized education, fuel efficiency and sustainability and such.

On oil development, Bush will endorse drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The US is surrounded by 4 OCS (Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic, Alaska and Pacific OCSs). The OCS is practically the area between the continent and deep ocean. He reckons there is approximately 18 billion of oil in these areas. Even if he manages to lift the ban on drilling in the OCS, it won't help reduce the current oil price. It will take years to develop these fields, the price of steel has increased to more than US1000 a tonne which slows down construction and increases price of platforms and rigs. It will take at least 1-2 years to explore and another 2-3 years to begin development. By then, oil would be USD200/bbl. Senator Obama plans to increase fuel efficiency by spending more money in car engine research, E85 at the pumps. He is also an advocate of the environment and wants to see the US help reduce green house gas emission as they are the biggest consumer of oil.

Iranian O&G Development and Drilling in Alaska

Iran is set to drill another 160 wells by March 2009. That would translate into multi-billion dollar investments, heavy mobilization of equipment and man power and potential growth for the economy. Although Total has pulled out of that race, rest assured that many National Oil Cos will participate in this endeavor.

President of Iran has also proposed the use of a single currency to help combat the ailing US dollar affect on oil price. This is both political and economic. This was also echoed by our former Prime Minister on the use of Euro for the industry.

With Iran set to be the third biggest gas producer in the world by 2020 with an estimated production of 620 billion cubic yards, no wonder it is proposing another setup similar to OPEC but for gas producers. How will this impact the politics of gas? We have seen how former USSR countries were held hostage due to the dependence of Russian gas.

Meanwhile, the US is opening up Alaska and the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve to more development drilling activities. This is totally counter productive as the reserves will not satisfy the growing consumption of gas-guzzling SUVs and others. The US alone consumes 25 million barrels a day and produces only 1/3 of it. Senator Obama is ready to set the tone for a new energy policy if installed as the new POTUS such as the use of E85, lowering carbon emission by investing in R&D and manufacturing of fuel-efficient cars (therefore creating a sustainable competition against the Japanese auto onslaught).

DRILLING ENGINEER - RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL

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Job Requirements:

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	Company Name:	Velosi
	Job Category:	Engineer - Petroleum
	Education Level:	Bachelors/3-5 yr Degree
	Req'd Experience:	10+ years
	Desired Expertise:	Drilling Engineering
	Proposed Salary:	TBA
	Country:	Brazil
	Location:	Rio de Janeiro

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Job Description:

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Drill Team: Worldwide Ventures Drill Team Assignment Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Assignment Type: Onshore Rotation ? 21 days on / 21 days off Assignment Start Date: ~ July 8 Completion Date: Minimum 1 year assignment Qualification Requirements: B.S. Engineering / 10+ years offshore drilling experience Work Description: Drilling engineering staff work ? operational support and engineering design work for exploration well activity. Skills/Experience: Deepwater drilling engineer with experience in both well design and operational support; desire approximately 10-years total experience, with the last 5 involved in deepwater floating operations.

Iraq anyone??

DRILLING ENGINEERS
Job Requirements:

Company Name: Sheffield Offshore Services Pte Ltd
Job Category: Engineer - Petroleum
Education Level: Tech/Vocational Cert.
Req'd Experience: 3+ years
Desired Expertise: Drilling Engineering
Country: Iraq
Location: Kurdistan
Job Description:

3 different positions:
Drilling Engineer (Well-site)
Drilling Engineer (Mud Engineer)
Drilling Engineer (Mud & Cement Specialist)

Rotation: 28/28
To apply for this position, click *here*.

Basic Drilling Concepts: Perforation

After the production hole is cased and cementing, now the well is ready to be perforated. Perforation gun is conveyed down the hole with the use of either wireline, drill pipe or coiled tubing. Wireline can be conveyed typically for wells with an inclination of <60 deg. This is because it is lowered by gravity.

Explosives are carefully positioned on the gun based on spf (shots per foot). Phasing is also used to describe the arrangement of the explosives. The charges are detonated either hydraulically (via drill pipe or coiled tubing) or using current (via wireline).

Different types of explosives will determine size of perforation tunnel, which connects the wellbore to the reservoir and temperature rating.

Basic Drilling Concepts: Casing and Cementing

To reach a particular reservoir objective, the hole needs to be drilled in stages. Because of this, a telescopic effect will take place. Each stage will have a reduced diameter. Stages or casings placements are done strategically, considering shallow gas hazards, low pressure zones, poor consolidated sands and other factors. A typical 3km well will take 2-3 casing sizes. A surface hole will be drilled (normally 17-1/2" or 12-1/4") to a point where the formation is strong enough for pressure containment (in drilling terms, deep enough to close the BOP and shut in the well). Then, a casing (steel tubular) will be ran in joints of 12.5m all the way down to section TD (total depth) and cemented in place. For example, say we drill a 12-1/4" surface hole, we will then set a 9-5/8" casing string. Then, we will drill a 8-1/2" production hole to TD and run a 7" casing or liner. A liner is just a shorter casing section and its hanging point is in the previous casing size using what's called a liner hanger.

Cementing is the most important element of securing a hole and it's normally the easiest to screw up. Once a string of casing is ran, cement will be blown by air pressure @ 110 psi from silos on the rig to the cementing unit. The cementing unit will then mix and pump a slurry based on a pre-determined receipe. The slurry will then be pumped into the string and up the annulus. The bottom of the casing will have what's called a shoe track (just a one-way check valve to ensure that cement does not flow back into the casing string).

The recipe will include things like retarder (to make it thicken at a slower rate), fluid loss, dispersants, silica and other additives. The cement act as the bond between casing and formation. It also seals the annulus (the area between casing and formation) from gas or fluids migration. For production casing, the cement gives a certain compressive strength to enable a clean perforation for access to hydrocarbon. More details on perforation next tiem.

Basic Drilling Concepts: Making Connection

Now we've talked about how to drill a well with the use of drill bit and drill pipes. Here's a picture of a derrick where it hangs the top drive.

Now let's talk about making connections between stands of drill pipes. Drill pipes are racked back in the derrick in stands (3 joints of DP make 1 stand). Here's a video of how a stand is made to another stand, this is called making a connection. We drill by stands or increments of 30m.

Once a stand is drilled, another stand is made up from the derrick, latched to the top drive and connection is made up to the "string" in the hole. The "Hawkjaw" on the left (the one in yellow color) will move in and the connection is tighten to a pre-determined torque value, usually around 40,000 ft-lbs for 5-1/2" DP.

Basic Drilling Concepts: Bit and Mud

Drill Bit: Drilling Engineer optimizes design by picking the best bit for the work. Different formation requires different type of bit usage. The most important parameter is cost per meter, a DE must be able to minimize cost per meter to maximize the cost effectiveness.

Once cuttings (chipped formation from bit cutting action) are produced, it is necessary to 'clean the hole' (transport cuttings to surface). The use of 'mud' (drilling fluid) is essential to: transport cuttings, keep the bit cool (the deeper it is, the higher the temperature. heat is also generated from rotation and vibration), softens the formation to make drilling easier and lubricates the well to ease 'casing running' (installing tubulars in drilled well).

The circulation system starts from 'mud pits' where mud is mixed (mud has different ingredients and chemicals to behave according to a DE's design in terms of viscosity, weight, gel strength and others). Mud is pumped using big pumps called mud pumps (wow what a technical term) and circulated up the derrick (in the stand pipe), down the top drive, into the ID (inner diameter) of the drill pipe, out the bit, up the annulus, back to the pits.

KMC or Kota Mineral Chemicals is one of the best local companies providing this product. The company is owned by Scomi and is now known as Scomi OilTools. The other big mud company is MI Swaco. MI is partly owned by Schlumberger and Smith International.

Basic Drilling Concepts

How are wells drilled?

The basic principles of offshore drilling between open-water exploration (mobilize a rig in the middle of the ocean without any platforms installed) and development drilling (drilling from a rig above a platform) are about the same. Land drilling applies the same concept - only diferrence is........ it's on land ha ha.

Formation/soil/dirt/ground is drilled using a drilled bit. There are two types of bits widely used in the industry - tri cones and pdc (polycrystalline diamond compact) bits. Sizes range from 3" up to 30". I've also heard of bigger bits but they're rarely used. The typical ones used in my company's operations are 17-1/2", 12-1/4" and 8-1/2". The oil field is famous for the use of fractions. I guess the old foggies thought it'd be cool or something. You sometimes wonder if a tubing has an OD (outer diameter) of 2-7/8", why don't they just make it as 3" and stardardize it? God knows.


The bits are driven into formation with the use of drill pipes. Drill pipes come in an assortment of sizes but 5-1/2" DPs is the typical size. Drill pipes come in lengths of roughly 30' per joint. Wells nowadays are drilled beyond the 10km mark - especially operational areas such as Sakhalin, Russia. So imagine how many DPs are needed to reach the objectives!

The major companies supplying bits are Baker Hughes Christensen (Baker Hughes was founded by Howard Hughes' dad. Howard was the main character in the movie 'The Aviator'), Reed Hycalog and Smith International.

This is a picture taken from the drill floor looking up the derrick. The derrick on a rig hangs what's called a 'top drive' and stores drill pipes in 'stands'. A stand is 3 joints of DPs made up and racked back in the derrick. A top drive is the heart and soul of drilling - this equipment provides the rotation needed and the hoisting capability of the pipes in the well.

Let's do some quick math - Say the DP weighs 21.9 pounds per foot and imagine we're drilling a 5,000 m well. The amount of steel in the well when we reach the objective will be 21.9 x 5000 x 3.281 ft/m = 360,000 lbs. that's a lot of weight! Top drives these days are rated more than 1,000,000 lbs. They act like cranes if you will.That's the monster top drive - rated to 1M lbs of weight, up to 180 rpm rotational speed, 40,000 ft-lbs of torque. I think it's a Varco TDS4.

Barnyard on the Rig??

There are many old terms and jargons that the people in the oilfield use worldwide. You can practically use these terms anywhere in the world and people in the oil patch will understand them. They are also normally based on parts of animals or are called after certain animals, for god knows what reason. Here are some we use on the drilling rig:

Rabbit: A tool use to drift pipes
Cathead: A device to tighten tubulars
Hawkjaw: A device to tighten tubulars
Sharkjaw: A device that secures anchors on vessels
Mousehole: A temporary space for tubulars to be placed before being picked up by a top drive Rathole: Access meterage drilled in the well for the purpose of reciprocating the string in the hole
Monkey board: Where the derrick man works to sort pipes in the derrick
Pig: A piece of heavy-duty vulcanized rubber used to clean pipelines
Possum Belly, Cow's Cunt



There are also terms that sound funny or silly but are used extensively:

Rough neck or Roustabout: The general labor on the rig
Shooting Nipple, X-Nipple, XN-Nipple, etc (notice that the term nipple is widely used)
Christmas Tree: A set of valves used to control the flow of the well and ensures integrity of the well
Mud: Drilling Fluid
Tool Pusher: The senior supervisor in charge of rig personnel and operations
Camp Boss: The man in charge of catering and house keeping. This is THE man to make friends with.
Dope: Lubricant used on pipe threads
Jar: The act of hammering using a device to add weight onto the string in the hole. This produces either an upward or downward force.
Dutchman: A tubing stump or a cut casing in the well
Mudline: Seabed


Widow Maker: A walkway to connect a platform to a tender-assisted platform rig (TAPR) or semisub in TAPR mode (the bridge in the upper right corner)

The terms used are also simple enough and straight forward to describe the work they do:

Driller: The main guy on the rig making things happen - he controls the brakes on the top drive, which is a massive crane-type device that carries all the tubulars in and out of a well
Motor man: The mechanic on the rig to fix motors
Pump man: The personnel in charge of pumps on the rig
Derrick man: The guy in the derrick sorting pipes
Company man: The Operator representative on the rig (the rig is normally owned by a 3rd party Contractor and the personnel are also from the same company. The Operator rep is responsible to supervise operations conducted by them)