This book offers you a brief, but very involved look into the operations in the drilling of an Oil & Gas well. From start to finish, you'll see a general prognosis of the drilling process. If you are new to the oil & gas industry, you'll enjoy having a leg up with the knowledge of these processes. If you are a seasoned oil & gas person, you'll enjoy reading what you may or may not know in these pages.

OIL & GAS HANDBOOK

A ROUGHNECK'S GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSEBy Will Pettijohn

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2012 Will Pettijohn P.E.C.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4685-4531-9

Contents

Chapter 1 Rig move & rig up................................................1Chapter 2 Pre-spud Inspection..............................................11Chapter 3 Spudding in......................................................15Chapter 4 Drilling surface.................................................17Chapter 5 Running surface casing...........................................10Chapter 6 Blowout preventers...............................................22Chapter 7 Nipple up B.O.P.'s...............................................24Chapter 8 Testing the B.O.P.'s.............................................27Chapter 9 Drillout.........................................................28Chapter 10 Vertical wells..................................................31Chapter 11 Horizontal wells................................................31Chapter 12 Directional wells...............................................34Chapter 13 Total Depth (TD)................................................35Chapter 14 Tripping pipe...................................................36Chapter 15 Laying down drill pipe..........................................38Chapter 16 Running intermediate casing.....................................40Chapter 17 Running production casing.......................................42Chapter 18 Rig release.....................................................44Chapter 19 Rigging down....................................................45Chapter 20 Rig Equipment...................................................47Chapter 21 Terms and Definitions...........................................53Chapter 22 State of Mind...................................................62Chapter 23 The Totem Pole..................................................64Chapter 24 Surface kill sheet..............................................66Chapter 25 Descriptions of air hammer drilling.............................68Chapter 26 History of air hammers..........................................69Chapter 27 Air drilling techniques.........................................72Chapter 28 Mist drilling...................................................79Chapter 29 Stable and stiff foam drilling..................................82Chapter 30 Air compressors.................................................85Chapter 31 Estimating flow rates...........................................87Chapter 32 Particle dynamics...............................................92Chapter 33 Rule of thumb calculations for air drilling.....................95Chapter 34 Hammers.........................................................98Chapter 35 Mud motors......................................................101Chapter 36 Geology.........................................................115Chapter 37 Blow outs.......................................................121Chapter 38 Helpful equations and factors...................................124Chapter 39 Oilfield acronyms...............................................133Chapter 40 Closing.........................................................171

Chapter One

Rig move & rig up

All oil or gas wells begin in the same place. We must have a drilling rig, a location and a drilling program to complete the operation of drilling an oil or gas well.

(Location; a permitted piece of property designed to support and maintain the Rig during normal drilling operations)

Once we have our location permitted and surveyed, it must then be designed for the type of rig that is going to move onto it. If your rig is a diesel electric, for example; you will probably need a much larger location than a double jackknife or single lay-down rig would need. These are three different types of rigs that we will cover later. If your Rig requires a reservoir or reserve pit, it should be ready and lined, before you arrive on location.

If your rig is a multi load rig, you will use several trucks to move the rig. Some rigs, such as an RD-20 or a Schramm rig are mounted onto a truck themselves and only require trucks to move their pipe trailers and equipment. We should have trucks on location early. You will see several different types of trucks, such as haul trucks, bed trucks, pole trucks "in some instances" and cranes and forklifts if necessary. These trucks will have their own operators and more than likely a swamper for each truck; swampers do the tying on and spotting.

You as a roughneck will more than likely need to help these people in tying onto and spotting the equipment as it is moved. If your rig is large enough to use several trucks, you will more than likely have one crew on the old location, loading out the equipment and one crew on the new location doing a spot in rig up.

(Spot in rig up; rigging up all that you can, as the rig is brought in that doesn't slow the rig move down)

You will need several tools, so ask your driller or tool pusher/ rig manager what tools you will need. Remember, the more you do without being told, the quicker you'll move up in this industry. You will be helping someone who knows where each load is to be placed. As the loads begin arriving, try and think about where they are supposed to go and be ready for them. For the most part, your rig will only go together one way. After you have rigged the Rig up once, you will know better where things are and supposed to be.

(Remember that everything you put together should be tight and ready to drill. If you put something together handy "hand tight" it looks tight and it may be missed later, some things that are pressurized during normal drilling operations and are not tight could result in an accident. So if you put it together, tighten it up; this will save valuable time and energy later, because it will already be done. And it also may prevent a horrific accident if it is done right the first time.)

In general, the first things that will arrive will be the substructure and several other loads at once, (mud tanks) also known as mud pits will come with the first loads. The substructure, draw works and other loads that will be used to put these together. First they will bring in the substructure and level it. The substructure is placed in the center of the location over the planned well-bore. The mud tanks are always placed at the back of location next to the reserve pit (if applicable) or reclamation tanks in other cases will be set up to receive the materials that will be removed from the earth during the drilling operations. Then they will bring in the shaker/ sand pit and set it into place. They will place it and adjust it according to the schematic of your rig. If your rig has a two tank system, they will bring in the settling/suction pit next. Unless your rig only has a one mud tank system which is becoming more common in many cases; then these two will serve the purpose of holding, treating and reclaiming the active drilling fluids during the drilling operations. This is where you come in; you will need to connect all of the hoses, risers and spreaders between the two tanks and install the walkway and handrails. After the pit/pits are set in, ask your supervisor if you need to put any handrails or anything else on top of them (remember to wear your harness if there is a chance of falling). Some mud tanks/pits have stationary handrails and others do not, it usually depends upon the height restrictions when mobilizing. You may also need to bolt...