Contents. iii. 3 Cable-Tool and Rotary Drilling 11 Cable-Tool Drilling 11 Rotary Drilling 14

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1 Figures v Tables xii Preface xiii Units of Measurement xv Metric Conversion Factors xvi 1 Introduction 1 2 History 5 The Drake Well, 1850s 6 California, Late 1800s 8 The Lucas Well, Cable-Tool and Rotary Drilling 11 Cable-Tool Drilling 11 Rotary Drilling 14 4 Rotary Rig Types 19 Land Rigs 20 Mobile Offshore Rigs 21 5 People and Companies 31 Operating Companies 31 Drilling Contractors 32 Drilling Contracts 32 Service and Supply Companies 34 People 37 6 Oil and Gas: Characteristics and Occurrence 47 Natural Gas 47 Liquefied Petroleum Gas (lpg) 48 Crude Oil 48 Refined Hydrocarbons 48 Oil and Gas Reservoirs 49 Finding Petroleum Traps 54 Types of Wells 57 7 The Drill Site 59 Choosing the Site 59 Preparing the Site 60 Moving Equipment to the Site 67 8 Rigging Up 69 Substructures 69 Rig Floor 72 Raising the Mast or Derrick 73 Rigging Up Additional Equipment 75 Offshore Rig-Up 76 9 Rig Components 77 Power System 77 Hoisting System 83 Contents iii

2 Rotating System 94 Circulating System Normal Drilling Operations 119 Drilling the Surface Hole 119 Tripping Out with a Kelly System 130 Tripping Out with a Top-Drive Unit 133 Tripping Out with a Pipe Racker 134 Running Surface Casing 134 Cementing 140 Tripping In 142 Drilling Ahead 145 Running and Cementing Intermediate Casing 146 Drilling to Final Depth Formation Evaluation 147 Examining Cuttings and Drilling Mud 147 Well Logging 148 Drill Stem Testing 150 Coring Completing the Well 151 Setting Production Casing 151 Perforating 152 Running Tubing and Installing the Christmas Tree 154 Acidizing 156 Fracturing Special Operations 157 Directional and Horizontal Drilling 157 Fishing 159 Well Control Rig Safety and Environmental Concerns 165 Glossary 167 iv

3 1. A drilling rig is big Sometimes, a rig can be seen from a great distance The mast on this rig is 147 feet (45 metres) tall Personal protective equipment (PPE) includes hard hats and safety glasses Steel stairs with handrails lead up to the rig floor The drawworks is a powerful hoist Oil Creek as it looks today 5 8. A replica of the original Drake well; it was built in 1945 on the original site of the well Wall cake stabilizes the hole The Lucas well is estimated to have flowed about 2 million gallons (8,000 cubic metres) of oil per day A cable-tool rig A 6-horsepower (4.5-watt) steamboat engine thought to be similar to Drake s original, powers the Drake well replica A 1920's California standard cable-tool rig A bit for a rotary drilling rig The drill stem puts the bit on bottom to drill Two rotary helpers lift a joint of drill pipe out of the mousehole prior to adding it to the active drill string Components in the rotary table rotate the drill string and bit A powerful motor in the top drive rotates the drill string and bit A downhole motor placed near the bit rotates the bit Two pumps are available on this rig to move drilling fluid down the pipe; normally only one at a time is used A pump circulates drilling mud down the drill pipe, out the bit, and up the hole Drilling mud A land rig An offshore rig An inland barge rig To move a rig, crew members disassemble it and move it piece by piece The first MODU was a posted-barge submersible designed to drill in shallow waters When flooded, the bottles cause a bottle-type submersible to submerge to the seafloor A concrete island drilling system (CIDS) features a reinforced concrete caisson Drilling equipment is placed on the deck of a barge to drill in the shallow waters of bays and estuaries Four boats tow this jackup to its drilling location A jackup rig with four columnar legs This jackup has open-truss legs. 25 Figures v

4 34. The hull of this jackup is raised to clear the highest anticipated waves A semisubmersible rig floats on pontoons The pontoons of this semisubmersible float a few feet (metres) below the water s surface The main deck, or Texas deck, of a semisubmersible is big A drill ship An IADC drilling bid form This computer display shows a well log This member of a casing crew is stabbing one joint of casing into another Personnel on this offshore rig enjoy good food in the galley The driller on this offshore rig works in an environmentally controlled cabin This picture was shot above the derrickman s position on the monkeyboard This derrickman is checking the weight, or density, of the drilling mud Two rotary helpers latch big wrenches (tongs) onto the drill pipe These two floorhands are using power tongs to tighten drill pipe Two rig roustabouts help move casing from a supply boat to the rig A crane operator manipulates controls from a position inside the crane cab A barge engineer monitors a semisubmersible s stability from a work station on board the rig A pore is a small open space in a rock Connected pores give a rock permeability A fault trap and an anticlinal trap Stratigraphic traps A faulted anticline A piercement dome To the right of the tire, a large and heavy plate vibrates against the ground to create sound waves Several special trucks vibrate plates against the ground Stuck into the ground, a geophone (this one is blue) picks up reflected sound waves This seismic display is specially colored to reveal details of earth formations A reserve pit A concrete pad surrounds the cellar at this drilling site Part of the rig s drilling assembly is temporarily placed in the rathole A joint of drill pipe rests in this rig s mousehole A rathole rig drills the first part of the hole The conductor hole 65 vi

5 67. The large diameter pipe to the right is the top of the conductor pipe A special ship carries a semisubmersible to a new drilling location A box-on-box substructure A slingshot substructure in folded position prior to being raised The slingshot substructure near its full height This drawworks will be installed on the rig floor Drilling line is spooled onto the drawworks drum A mast being raised to vertical position This rig with a standard derrick was photographed in the 1970s at work in West Texas The doghouse is usually located at rig-floor level In the foreground is a coal-fired boiler that made steam to power the cable-tool rig in the background A mechanical rig drilling in West Texas in the 1960s Three diesel engines power this rig Three engines drive a chain-and-sprocket compound to power equipment The diesel engine at right drives the electric generator attached directly to the engine The central control cabinet of a diesel-electric rig Two powerful electric motors drive the drawworks on this rig The hoisting system The drawworks Removing the drawworks housing reveals the main brake bands to the left and right on hubs of the drawworks drum The electromagnetic brake is mounted on the end of the drawworks In this photo taken in the 1960s, a floorhand has fiber rope (a catline) wrapped around a friction cathead to lift an object on the rig floor This floorhand is using an air hoist, or tugger, to lift an object This makeup cathead has a chain coming out of it that is connected to the tongs Wire rope drilling line coming off the drawworks drum Drilling line is stored on this supply reel at the rig Drilling line is firmly clamped to this deadline anchor The sheaves (pulleys) of this crown block are near the bottom of the photo Ten lines are strung between the traveling block and the crown block Several wraps of drilling line on the drawworks drum Traveling block, shock absorber, hook, and other equipment are suspended by wire rope drilling line The mast supports the blocks and other drilling tools. 93 vii

6 99. A rotary-table system The turntable is housed in a steel case The master bushing fits inside the turntable Crew members are installing one of two halves that make up the tapered bowl Crew members set slips around the drill pipe and inside the master bushing s tapered bowl to suspend the pipe This master bushing has four drive holes into which steel pins on the kelly drive bushing fit This master bushing has a square bottom that fits into a square opening in the master bushing A. A square kelly 98 B. A hexagonal kelly This hexagonal kelly fits inside a matching opening in top of the kelly drive bushing The hook on the bottom of the traveling block is about to be latched onto the bail of the swivel Drilling fluid goes through the rotary hose and enters the swivel through the gooseneck A top drive, or power swivel, hangs from the traveling block and hook Mud pressure pumped through the drill stem above the down-hole motor, forces the motor s spiral shaft to turn inside the housing Horizontal hole These drill collars are laid out on a rack prior to being run into the well Drill collars put weight on the bit, which forces the bit cutters into the formation to drill it Several joints of drill pipe are laid on the rack prior to being run into the hole A floorhand stabs the pin of a joint of drill pipe into the box of another joint Two drill collars on a pipe rack Drill collars stacked in front of drill pipe on the rig floor A roller cone bit has teeth (cutters) that roll, or turn, as the bit rotates Tungsten carbide inserts are tightly pressed into holes drilled into the bit cones Drilling fluid (salt water in this case) is ejected out of the nozzles of a roller cone bit Several types of diamond bit are available Several diamond coated tungsten carbide disks form the cutters on this polycrystalline diamond compact bit Drilling mud swirls in one of several steel tanks on this rig This derrickman is measuring the density (weight) of a sample of drilling mud in a balance that is calibrated in pounds per gallon Components of a rig circulating system 113 viii

7 127. Mud pumps (most rigs have at least two) are powerful machines that move drilling mud through the circulating system The standpipe runs up one leg of the derrick or mast and conducts mud from the pump to the rotary hose Mud and cuttings fall onto the shale shaker, which removes the cuttings Desanders remove fine particles, or solids, from drilling mud Desilters, like desanders, also remove fine solids from the mud Mud cleaners, like desanders and desilters, also remove small solid particles from the mud A mud centrifuge removes tiny solids from the mud A degasser removes relatively small volumes of gas that enter the mud from a downhole formation and are circulated to the surface in the annulus A derrickman, wearing personal protective equipment, adds dry components to the mud through a hopper Large quantities of dry mud components are stored in P-tanks This derrickman stands next to a small, red-colored, steel container through which he can add caustic materials to the mud that is in the tanks below the grating A bit being lowered into the hole on a drill collar The kelly and related equipment in the rathole Red-painted slips with three handgrips suspend the drill string in the hole The kelly drive bushing is about to engage the master bushing on the rotary table The motor in the top drive turns the drill stem and bit The red pointer on the weight indicator shows weight on the bit The kelly is drilled down (is very close to the kelly drive bushing), so it is time to make a connection Here, the driller has raised the kelly with the traveling block so that the first joint of drill pipe is exposed in the opening of the rotary table Crew members latch tongs on the kelly and on the drill pipe The kelly spinner rapidly rotates (spins) the kelly in or out of the drill pipe joint Crew members stab the kelly into the joint of pipe in the mousehole Crew members use tongs to buck up (tighten) one drill pipe joint to another Crew members remove the slips The kelly drive bushing is about to engage the master bushing Making a connection using a top drive 129 ix

8 153. The kelly and swivel (with its bail) are put into the rathole Crew members latch elevators to the drill pipe tool joint suspended in the rotary table The derrickman has just placed the upper end of a stand of drill pipe between the fingers of the fingerboard The floorhands set the lower end of the stand of pipe off to one side of the rig floor A top view of an automatic pipe-handling device manipulating a stand of drill pipe A casing crew member cleans and inspects the casing as it lies on the rack next to the rig Casing threads must be clean, dry, and undamaged before they are run into the hole A joint of casing being lifted onto the rig floor A joint of casing suspended in the mast Casing elevators suspend the casing joint as the driller lowers the joint into the casing slips, or spider Working from a platform called the stabbing board, a casing crew member guides the casing elevators near the top of the casing joint Crew members install scratchers and centralizers at various points in the casing string Top view of casing not centered in the borehole; a cement void exists where the casing contacts the side of the hole A. Crew members lift the heavy steel-and-concrete guide shoe. 138 B. The guide shoe is made up on the bottom of the first joint of casing to go into the hole Cementing the casing; (A) the job in progress; (B) the finished job Crew members install a float collar into the casing string A cementing head (plug container) rests on the rig floor, ready to be made up on the last joint of casing to go into the hole To trip in, crew members stab a stand of drill pipe into another After stabbing the joint, crew members use a spinning wrench to thread the joints together After spin up, crew members use tongs to buck up the joint to final tightness An Iron Roughneck spins and bucks up joints with built-in equipment Intermediate casing is run and cemented in the intermediate hole Intermediate liner is hung in the surface casing A handful of cuttings made by the bit Logging personnel run and control logging tools by means of wireline from this laboratory on an offshore rig. 148 x

9 178. A well-site log is interpreted to give information about the formations drilled This small rig is a well servicing and workover unit Perforations (holes) Shaped charges in a perforating gun make perforations A coiled-tubing unit runs tubing into the well from a large reel This collection of valves and fittings is a Christmas tree Several directional wells tap an offshore reservoir A. A downhole motor laid on the rack prior to being run into the hole. 158 B. A bent sub deflects the bit a few degrees off-vertical to start the directional hole An overshot A. A spear goes inside the fish in a released position; B. once positioned, the spear is set and the fish removed Fluids erupting from underground caught fire and melted this rig A stack of blowout preventers (BOPs) installed on top of the well A subsea stack of BOPs being lowered to the seafloor from a floating rig Several valves and fittings make up a typical choke manifold A remote-controlled choke installed in the choke manifold This control panel allows an operator to adjust the size of the choke opening. 164 xi

10 Tables 1. Land rigs classified by drilling depth Types of MODU Roller cone and fixed-head bit cutters 107 xii