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Sitting on beams in the
centre of the drillfloor is the rotary table,
this was once the driving force
that turned the drill string; on many rigs
(offshore) this is now being done with the top
drive; however the rotary has not become
obsolete as it still supports the drill string weight.
Below the rotary is some of the most expensive
real-estate that money can buy a 36” diameter section can very be
extremely expensive once the drill bit goes through the rotary.
Within a short distance of the rotary but still
on the drillfloor are the tool used, tools that are design to get
the job done, tools that are often taken beyond the manufacture
recommend limits, most of these tools are within easy reach of the
people that will use them (roughnecks/Floorman).
On the more modern offshore rigs many of these
tools are now computer run by the driller, he/she sits in the
drillers control room (DCR) that is situated to the side and in one
of the corners of the rig, some of these control rooms sit on the
drillfloor, others are raised 10 to 12 feet giving the driller a
bird’s eye view of the floor, the more tools that are run using a
computer to control them the more people needed in the control room.
Often there are two chairs
both have identical functions, but only one has the power to operate
a given tool at the time, under such conditions the person in the
chair must assign the tool to their chair
once
done the tool cannot be taken by the other chair until it is
released.
Another feature of the modern drillfloor is the
Zone Management System (ZMS) your rig may have a different name for
it but at the end of the day it all boils down to the same thing,
the computer system watching over the tools to stop them colliding,
Safety has now become a major issue within the industry, bypass the
ZMS and you are bypassing the system that has been developed to help
keep the rig a safer place to work
In this chapter of the
drillfloor web site we will take a look at some of the tools being
used on the floor today and some that are still in use after 60
years
Under normal drilling conditions the
drillfloor is supervised by the driller, and it is the drillers
responsibility to keep the rig safe, such a position can
be very stressful at times, planning a well is one thing,
drilling it is another, although the drilling parameter are
predetermined there is no telling what Mother Nature has in
store, and sometimes she can be a bitch, the driller is also
responsible for the hands-on training his crew: "hence the
saying there are no bad crews just bad drillers"?
For many of the older people (the dinosaurs
as we are often called) drilling is a way of life, to us it is a
trade that has been handed down from one generation to the next,
in all fairness very little has change over the years, many of
the tools used today have been around for a long time, what has
changed is the way they are controlled, other things that have
changed is the lack of experienced people, and attitude. for the
industry to move forward, both must change or the billions of
dollars being spent right now (2003 - 2015) will be wasted,
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