Has anyone watched this show "Black Gold" on trutv (formerly court tv)? It is from the creators of Deadliest Catch.
I have been watching with interest because I work in an oil field related business. I do not work on a drilling rig, like on the show, but have been on numerous rigs and am familiar with whats going on.
In this show, I think they found the roughest, most redneck crew they could find and put them on tv, and why not, if it makes good tv. There are a few things that have happened on the show that I feel are made for tv moments. Like the practice of 'throwing chain'. This is done on the floor of the rig while drilling, and helps grip the pipe to keep it from slipping, and is very, very dangerous. That is why most drilling companies do not allow this except for in certain situations. The drillings rigs are now set up (yes even the old ones) to have a hydraulic clamp grip the pipe at the floor level, thus eliminating the chains. If this clamp is in place and the pipe is slill slipping, they may use the chains.....
Also, the show makes is seem like it is a race between these three rigs to hit the same oil. While oil rigs are on a tight schedule, and there is a sence of urgency on them, the only way you see multiple rigs drilling for the same oil is if they are drilling for the same oil company (i.e. cononco-phillips or hess ect...). It is possible to have different oil drilling companies drilling for the same oil, but the oil is leased by a single company, who hires the drilling rig to drill the hole.
It all makes for good tv though. I cannot stop watching it.
The work I do is for an oil field service company, and we do what is called wireline work (sorry, Mr. V no longer selling the bits).
A wireline truck has about 30,000 ft of cable that is ran into the drilled hole (this is done either at the drilling rig, or after the completion, or on old wells...basically, if there is a hole and they need our service, they call). We run this wireline down the hole and do things like perforate (blow holes in the casing to increase well production) to pipe recovery ( removing a section of pipe or casing that cannot be drilled out). We also log the wells (which is measuring the depth of fluids, such as water, oil, natural gas). We also do what is called cement bond logging. A CBL measures the density of the cement around the casing. North Dakota state law requires that a well be cemented around the casing from surface down to approx 6000 ft, to protect the water supply. There are others services that we provide....too many to mention.
I am gonna try to get some pictures of some job sites up this week, if I have time. Sorry I haven't been on too much lately. Busy with work.
Let me know your thoughts on the show....Have a good weekend!
Yeah I have seen that show a couple times Randy. I think I saw the one that the crew went out and partied for the drillers birthday and all but one of them didn't show up to work the next morning. I think those drilling rigs are around here in Texas somewhere not to far away. Pretty interesting stuff!
