Page 302 - Drilling Technology in Nontechnical Language

Chapter 12 – MANAGING DRILLING OPERATIONS 293

These areas of responsibility must be defined before operations begin.

All supervisory staff (whether operator, contractor, or service company)
must understand and follow the procedures laid down.

On a typical dayrate operation, the drilling supervisor will set out a
daily program of work for the next 24 hours. This is then discussed with
the toolpusher so as to ensure that the contractor has some input and is able

to flag up any conflicts. For instance, the drilling supervisor may plan to
test the blowout preventer on a test stump in readiness for nippling up the
BOP later on. However, the toolpusher may be aware of some equipment
problem that prevents the test from occurring until a later time. (A test
stump is a “false” wellhead spool to which the BOP can be connected and
tested. Once the BOP is then nippled up on the actual wellhead, only the
last connection needs to be tested. This can save a considerable amount of
rig time.)

It is good practice for the main supervisory staff on the rig to meet at
least once a day to discuss the upcoming program.

Decision Making in the Of ce

Each day, usually sometime around 6:30 a.m., the drilling supervisor
transmits a daily drilling report back to the office. Previously this was by

telex, but now computerized reporting systems are the norm. With high-
cost operations, data from the rig can be constantly streamed to a real-time
data center, where it can be analyzed by specialists in different disciplines.
This data also can be monitored in the drilling office.

In a typical drilling office that has several rigs working, a morning
meeting is held, chaired by the drilling manager. Each drilling

superintendent describes briefly the operations on the rig, any problems
that have occurred or are expected, and other relevant points. This is a
good forum where others in the meeting may give advice. It also keeps
everybody updated on what everybody else is doing. People from
other departments or sometimes from the drilling contractor or service
companies might attend, though this is not usually the case.

Although the drilling superintendent responsible for a rig works office
hours, the rig can contact the responsible drilling superintendent (DSupt)
any time if problems occur.

_Devereux_Book.indb 293 1/16/12 2:12 PM