Warren Butler, Service Rig Operator (Driller), Nabors Production Services, Brooks, AB
"Hi, I'm Warren Butler and I'm a driller on a service rig operated by Nabors Production Services. It's my job to supervise the rig crew, which consists of me, a roughneck, a derrickman and a leasehand.
Our crew operates a truck-mounted service rig that's much smaller than the drilling rigs that drill the oil and gas wells. It's our job to help get the well ready for production by working with the companies that provide special services like fracing and perforating. If something has to go down hole into the well, we help get it there. We also work on wells that are already producing, doing maintenance, replacing equipment or helping enhance production.
When I started working in the patch about four years ago, I worked on a drilling rig for a few days, but I found out that wasn't for me. For one thing, drilling rig crews work 24/7, while on a service rig we usually work 12-hour day shifts. A drilling rig can stay on the well site for weeks, but mostly we're on site only a day or two. That means I get to travel a lot more, and that's something I really like doing. So far I've worked all over Alberta and in Saskatchewan. Another bonus is that on our smaller rig it's more one-to-one with people, especially since our crew usually stays together from job to job.
I didn't plan on going into the oil and gas industry when I left school. In fact, I was working as a pool hall manager when I drove a friend to the Nabors' office. One of the guys there told me that they had jobs open and said I should put in an application. Since I had heard a lot about how good the money was working on the rigs, I thought why not? Two days later I was hired as a roughneck. It was all pretty confusing at first, but after two months of training and people helping me and explaining what to do, I got the hang of it.
I was a roughneck for nine months and then I went derricking for two years. Five months ago I took my Blowout Prevention course so I could move up to driller. A driller gets more money. He also has a lot more responsibility, but that's great if you like that and you're up to it."
Base salary: $26.50 - $37.25 per hour, plus a living or subsistence allowance. Annual salary depends on activity levels. Average salary reported in 2005 was approximately $60,000 annually.
Education: Grade 12 plus several industry certificates
Advancement: Rig manager and then field supervisor
Salary, education and advancement may vary from company to company.
7:00 am -- We usually work 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM shifts, but some days can be shorter or longer, depending on the job we're doing. If it's the first day on a job, I supervise unloading the rig and bring it up to the well. If the rig's already there, I turn on the power switches and get it going.
7:30 am -- Next, I'll check the pressure in the well casing and tubing. You want to know what you're dealing with before you start opening up the valves. If you've got high pressure downhole and you're not aware of it, someone could get hurt. Once I've done the pressure check, I can open up the valves in the well so we're ready to get to work.
8:00 am -- We have a safety meeting every morning to remind ourselves how to do things safely. After that, I make sure everything on the rig is ready to go, depending on the job we're doing that day. I check all of the equipment and make sure we've got everything we need and that it's working properly.
9:30 am -- Now that everything's ready on the rig, we'll have a meeting in the doghouse (rig meeting room) with the crew and the person from whatever additional well service company is working on site that day. We talk about the job, what our crew has to do and how we're going to do it.
10:15 am -- Next up is another safety meeting. At the first safety meeting, we'll talk about general safety. At this one, we go over safety precautions for the specific job we're doing that day. You have to be really careful about some things that you do on a service rig because they can be hazardous unless you're prepared and know what you're doing. Like when they're perforating the well casing to make the oil or gas flow better, they use a perforating gun that's loaded with explosive charges. When we're perforating, only I am allowed on the rig along with the guys from the perforating company.
11:00 am -- Today we're capping a gas well, but before we start tripping out (pulling pipe out)-taking out the production tubing - we have to go fishing. There's a mud motor that's gotten stuck down hole and we have to "fish" it out. So we're working with a fishing company that has special tools used downhole to pull the motor out. Once we've done that we can start tripping out.
1:15 pm -- The well we're working on is a gas storage well. That means the oil and gas company is going to cap it and store the gas downhole until they need to produce it. It's a fairly shallow well, so we'll only be pulling out about 155 joints of pipe. Each joint is 9.5 meters long, so it'll take us about 2.5, maybe 3 hours to trip out and get the pipe loaded on a flat deck truck.
2:00 pm -- A couple of times during the day, I'll go over to the accumulator shack (valve control centre) to check the pressure down hole to make sure it doesn't get too high. We have blowout preventers on the well to stop blowouts if the pressure builds, but if they fail, I can shut things down manually from the accumulator shack.
3:00 pm -- While we're tripping out, I run the controls on the rig floor. I run the block and elevator that bring the pipe out of the hole. I'll stop the pipe at a joint, then the other guys on the crew take that segment off and load in onto a truck. Then we do it all over again.
3:45 pm -- Part of my job as driller is helping to train the other guys on the crew. If they're having a problem, I can step in and show them what to do or how to do it better. It's a good thing having a crew that works together a lot so that everybody is on the same wavelength. I try to keep everybody up to speed and make sure everyone is doing his job as efficiently and as best he can. It's my belief it takes all of us together to make this job work.
5:00 pm -- At the end of the day, I'll make sure we close down the well safe and secure until the next morning. If we're staying on site, I'll just shut the rig off for the night. If we're moving to another job, I'm the guy who drives the rig.
