PILOT SPIN
Spin Zone => Spin Zone => Topic started by: Rush on June 14, 2023, 07:06:14 AM
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Living in Texas for several years now and know nothing about oil rigs other than we have a lot of them, so I decided to edumacate myself.
They’re basically just a big drill. The bit is on the end of a length of pipe called the “string” made up of sections (called “stands”) typically around 30’ long, that join together at joints. As the well gets deeper, you have to add stands one by one. Some stands are joined in advance in two to four joints before being added to the string, to cut down on the time it takes to complete the dig.
The stands are stored vertically in racks, where, at the top, a “derrickman” moves them one by one over to a pulley block which has an elevator that clamps onto the pipe securing it at the top, and then the derrickman maneuvers the pipe so the floor crew can grab the bottom, and insert the threaded end into the female end of the previous stand. (The first one is disconnected from the “Kelly”, basically a driveshaft).
This derrickman can be as high as ten stories up, and just dangles himself on safety lines over thin air to position the pipe for his work mates below.
The threads are doped, the stand spun to screw it in place, and then “tongs” applied (basically a large wrench) to tighten down the joint. A brake had been applied to the string to hold it for the new section, this is removed, the section lowered, and the process repeated.
Wells can vary a great deal in depth. Many thousands of feet, and this process of adding sections to the string can require hundreds of repetitions. When the bit is worn and needs to be replaced, the process is reversed and the entire string pulled back out section by section, then re-installed again with the new bit. When the well reaches the desired depth, the whole string is removed once again, testing equipment is lowered to confirm that they did indeed strike oil and it’s a good dig. Then a whole new process of installing permanent pipe with concrete casing happens and the well can begin to produce.
In this video they are actually removing the pipe for whatever reason. A string might need to be brought back out if a section is cracked or some idiot drops something down in it or whatever. As it is removed it must be put back up into the vertical rack, or alternately, may be stacked lying down on the ground which I assume is the final removal when drilling is complete. After the pipe is disconnected (using the tongs again) he applies a cap to the end to protect the threads and places it on that slide thingie, (remember the elevator is holding the top) then the elevator lowers it down, the elevator is removed and applied to the next section to pull out.
That mud you see is lubricant. They call it “mud” but it’s not really mud, but a special gel like substance specifically designed for this purpose the weight of which must be controlled or bad things happen. During active drilling it is continuously pumped down through the pipe and moves back up around the outside to be sent to a holding pond (mud pit?), filtered and recycled back.
I love the offscreen guy throwing caps at the roughneck, and he flawlessly catches them every time.🤣🤣
I also like the way he grins at the mud then it splashes at him.
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Laying down drill pipe but with good music:
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How do they keep them from "unscrewing?"
How do they curve the pipe?
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How do they keep them from "unscrewing?"
How do they curve the pipe?
I have no idea. That post is the totality of what I know on the subject. ;D
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Here's what it looks like from the top!
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Remember, Howard Hughes' father made his fortune from drill bits for these drills.
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Remember, Howard Hughes' father made his fortune from drill bits for these drills.
I did not know that.
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Don't tell my mom I work in the oil fields.
She thinks I play piano in a whore house.
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Don't tell my mom I work in the oil fields.
She thinks I play piano in a whore house.
I had to look that up.
https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Tell-Mom-Work-Rigs/dp/1600940250
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I did not know it was a book.
It has been a fact since I was a kid.
I think Gilley's even sold it as a bumper sticker.
lol
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I did not know it was a book.
It has been a fact since I was a kid.
I think Gilley's even sold it as a bumper sticker.
lol
Yep, I saw there was a bumper sticker.
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It seems that mothers everywhere think that their kids all play the piano. I've seen this in several different occupations (paid or otherwise) since the 70s.
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My bad, thought Rush was talking about a different laying pipe…😎
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My bad, thought Rush was talking about a different laying pipe…😎
I never heard of that phrase before. I thought it was a pipe full of some substance used for tripping.
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I never heard of that phrase before. I thought it was a pipe full of some substance used for tripping.
You mean like a hash pipe or something? I never heard of “tripping pipe” before now. It seems the phrase comes from sending the pipe on a trip down the hole, like the pipe’s going on a journey which I guess it is, going thousands of feet into the earth.
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The whole technology of drilling is amazing. And how they figure out where and when and how to bend the drill pipe to get at the oil (or to get under someone else's property).
I grew up near the oil fields of California. Saw all kinds of billboards for "fishing" companies, which in California made some kind of sense. Except the were all inland and for oil wells. I finally figured out that they were there to retrieve broken pipe and the very expensive drill heads from way down deep.
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Good friend of mine works in the oil industry. He has done almost every job from the fields to rigs in the Gulf. Hard, dangerous work. Lots of broken marriages, broken bodies, and chemical dependencies. But I still find his stories fascinating.
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Good friend of mine works in the oil industry. He has done almost every job from the fields to rigs in the Gulf. Hard, dangerous work. Lots of broken marriages, broken bodies, and chemical dependencies. But I still find his stories fascinating.
I can see that. The long hours, hard work, when you get back home maybe too worn out to spend time with the family, or literally gone for weeks at a time. The wife having no real clue what you’re doing to bring home the money. Gotta be hard on the joints, saw one guy comment he got carpal tunnel from it. Another said they’d smoke a “big blunt” to get through the day. Can you imagine doing that high? Probably the early days, they probably randomly pee test you these days.
They make a lot of money but some blow it on fancy car or truck and prostitutes, drugs and alcohol, don’t save, come out of it as poor as they went in. Others are smart, work just a few years, save up then be in good position to go back to school, buy a house, get a safer easier job.
Reading all the comments it’s amazing how many say they loved it and miss it. A few say they hated it.
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We have a member over at the Purple Board that works as a contractor supervising frac crews.
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The whole technology of drilling is amazing. And how they figure out where and when and how to bend the drill pipe to get at the oil (or to get under someone else's property).
I grew up near the oil fields of California. Saw all kinds of billboards for "fishing" companies, which in California made some kind of sense. Except the were all inland and for oil wells. I finally figured out that they were there to retrieve broken pipe and the very expensive drill heads from way down deep.
I am completely nerding out on this thing. Right now I’m trying to figure out how the pipes are supported in the rack. They have to be sitting on the floor but I thought I saw one dangling from the derrickhand’s hands with the bottom swaying around BEFORE he latched it into the elevator thingie. If that is a 93’ long section of 5” pipe that thing weighs a literal ton, 2000 pounds. No way he’s holding it. I think I’m misremembering gonna have to go find that part of the video. And even if he’s not supporting it he has to walk it from the rack through the finger out to the edge of the “monkey platform” or whatever it’s called before throwing it into the elevator latch or whatever that thing is called. How does he even do that with a 2000 pound piece of pipe?
Here’s what I’m reading now: https://www.drillingmanual.com/tripping-pipe-procedures-operations-rig-safety/#h-trips
It’s not like I don’t have other stuff I’m supposed to be doing.
And oh yeah, I read about what they have to do to fish stuff back out of the hole. Talk about PITA.
Here’s a good overview:
https://www.quora.com/When-something-falls-into-a-drilling-hole-on-an-oil-rig-why-is-it-so-catastrophic-and-expensive-to-fix?share=1
Drop a wrench down there, could cost over $1M could result in abandoning the hole and starting over. Sheesh.
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We have a member over at the Purple Board that works as a contractor supervising frac crews.
Well then. I don’t know why I never think to go over there. I’m in a rut. Drink coffee, check pilotspin, check Twitter, work at my job, drink more coffee, check pilotspin, check Twitter, play Killer Sudoku, work at my job, eat something, check Twitter, drink more coffee, decaf this time, check pilotspin, work at my job, and occasionally go mow the grass or do housework. That’s my whole life. A rut. How do I shoehorn the Purple Board in there?
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Well then. I don’t know why I never think to go over there. I’m in a rut. Drink coffee, check pilotspin, check Twitter, work at my job, drink more coffee, check pilotspin, check Twitter, play Killer Sudoku, work at my job, eat something, check Twitter, drink more coffee, decaf this time, check pilotspin, work at my job, and occasionally go mow the grass or do housework. That’s my whole life. A rut. How do I shoehorn the Purple Board in there?
He hangs around in the "Last" thread.
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I figured it out!
The end is in shadow. That’s why I don’t see it. It’s an optical illusion. What looks like the end is actually a point on the pipe that isn’t in shadow. I didn’t realize it bent that much at that small an angle off of vertical. But it’s a longer length of pipe than it seems from the viewing angle of that guy looking down. The minute he guides it out of perfect verticality it begins to bend and as he brings it out of the finger the angle wrt the floor becomes more and more off from 90 deg. and it begins to bend under its own weight. That combined with possibly him moving the camera which I assume is on his head, plus the long length of the pipe and hence distance of the view, is giving the illusion of straight pipe swinging rather than pipe bending. Add in the shadow at the bottom the illusion is complete.