kevellis32

Thats a pretty rig compared to some of the ones I have been on in the fruita, grand junction and green river area. The joke of a rig I was on in fruita was just dangerous. No company man, pusher or anything. Driller would sleep in his truck and get me to wake him and his drill crew up when they needed to make a connection. None of them wore hard hats and the driller would trip pipe in sneakers while smokin a cigar. And about 2 weeks before I got there they got the bit stuck so the same driller just turned his rotary up as high as it would go and kept on yankin up on the kelly and a couple seconds later the whole derrik came toppling over...Good thing my boss pulled me off that job seeing as how they had us put my trailer in the spot where it came tumbling down....Anyone else have any good stories?

Fronty Owner

I would have told my boss to move me or fire me...

I haven't heard stories like that since the 80s....

eddiebob

How about taking a kick on a jackup rig while tripping, closing the hydil, hydril leaks, no one notices, 10 bbl kick turns into a 100 bbl kick, close rams, excede casing burst pressure, evacuate rig, burn rig up! That was in 1998. One of the problems in our industry today is consultants who have not got a clue. I guess if a person can pass the well control school and get the certificate they can be a company man. I agree with Fronty Owner... If they do not know how to work safe send me home! Ed B

BLACKDODOGE

is getting a job as roustabout or roughneck difficult? I've been plumbing for about 6 years out of High School and when I first got that job every company would hire you, your mom, dogs and cats it was such a demand. Just wondering the demand in oilfields.

P.S. now construction here sucks, every company closed down. No joke, no residential building period.

Fronty Owner

I have seen guys literally walk up the lease road, onto a job site, talk to the company man and be handed a hardhat and finish the shift within an hour or so of walking onto the lease.
Im sure they took care of the legalities (golden flow test and paperwork) later.

kevellis32

You couldn't be any more correct, Its something that I think would be great to do with homeless people. They are gonna get paid pretty well to get them a good head start and they get a free place to stay when on site, if you get where im going at. They have way more openings than they know what to do with, at some points they even try to get the mud loggers to help them trip pipe or weigh mud because they are so understaffed

Fronty Owner

Yea, it would be a great way to take care of the homeless problem, but wouldn't that be like making someone work for what they want instead giving them handouts?

kevellis32

Precisly, in the grand junction area they have signs with homeless people with the no smoking thing on it, sayin "giving spare change won't make a differece" Lemme see if I can find that picture, I thought it was quite comical the first time I saw it. But that is my point, I am sick of all the hand outs this country gives and if you can get them to work, give them a good payin job right off the bat and stick them in a skid where they can live for a month and make a few thousand dollars they have a chance...

BLACKDODOGE

what kind of pay are talking hourly for leasehand or floorhand?

Fronty Owner

In every city in the US and Europe I have been in, there are homeless people...

I have not seen a single one in Brunei or Singapore.
I have seen some occupied houses that would be condemned anywhere else in the world, but these people aren't sleeping in doorways begging for coins. They may be living day to day on what they find in the jungle and on rice living 20 people in the house and hot bunking, but on the other hand they may be working at the hotel I am at.

Im sick of the handout and Im sick of supporting the handouts.

kevellis32

amen to that

vr1967

Fronty Owner,
I get to leave in a week for another glorious month in Singapore. I guess the worst place I've been in Nigeria.

Stay safe.

Fronty Owner

I have thus far avoided the middle east and north africa regions.

Stay out of Orchard Towers that place will get you into trouble.

KMKDiesel

There are still alot of kelly rigs around. The oil company I worked for had a lease with tesco to put all of there top drives on the rigs we had them for 1 1/2 years and they yanked them reason being we can drill a well in the same amount of time and the top drive was $4000 a day. One of the company man I used to have used to bo the drilling superintendent for h&P in texas and that was one of his old rigs that burnt down, it happened a few weeks ago. And for the one that made the post with all of the cost for on offshore well look at it this way. I am on a 30 year old rig with a kelly, drilling wells in 30 days and producing just as much as offshore and it cost about one day of yours. In my opinion with as much as it cost for lwd and rotary steerable, etc, we will run wireline surveys and log when running casing throw in a bent motor, and slide drill the same well just a whole lot cheaper. The oilfield is getting to the fastest and cheapest wells which are on land. No offense to service hands but roughnecking is the way to go you get the same amount of days off as you work. Service hands work twice as many days as they get off if not more. Sorry for the long post

kevellis32

From what I have seen so far. Top drives are great, WHEN they work, other than that they are just problems. Its really hard to screw up a Kelly rig.