Land Rigs

Let us spend a couple of minutes on the land-based oil rigs. Yes, most of the materials and information presented herein are related to the offshore units; however, it would make sense to know a bit about how this all started. Just read this short article.

As we know, the very first drilling rigs used were land rigs and were invented and subsequently both in Texas, USA and in Germany just over hundred years ago.

Nowadays, the land-based oil rigs constitute an advanced piece of machinery and when thinking of the amount of engineering and care in manufacturing, racing cars can look a bit sedate.

Land rigs come in all sizes, from small trailer mounted rigs to very large rig systems requiring more than 100 trucks to move. One of the first criteria for design of a land rig is how to move it. If the rig has to move on normal roads, it has to be dismantled to pieces that can be easily be transported by truck and does not exceed axle load restrictions.

In addition to weight limitations, the sizes of equipment that has to be moved will also impose problems and cost. In most countries, there are rules for height and width of goods to be transported on roads. When exceeding these rules, police escort and road and bridge modifications may add significantly to the overall cost of drilling a well.

Rigs dedicated for work in deserts are quite often built without regards for road transport. Some of the EDC, standing for the Egyptian Drilling Company, rigs working in Syria and in Egypt have large wheel assemblies, or moving gears retrofitted so the entire Rig with mast and substructure can move in one piece.

This is quite a reduction in loads to move and makes quite a difference in the time it takes to move the rig. If it takes seven days to move a rig without the moving gear attached it will take approximate sixty hours for the rig move with the moving gear attached.

Land rigs have a distinct advantage over rigs made for working on water, space and weight is not a problem. Contractors build rig sites to suit the rig and the equipment not the other way around. A standard desert foot print for a rig location is 400 ft x 400 ft.

Another advantage is that if a project requires special equipment this can be added to the rig inventory without worrying about deck loads and permissions. Also, note that a rig may require additional mud tanks for a well and this will then be no problem as land locations can be expanded easily enough.

Newer land rigs are also designed for fast rig up and rig down as well as minimizing the impact on the landscape and environment. Drive past a pad of producing wells today and there will hardly be anything to evidence that a big rig and a large rig location has been in use. All that can be seen is a few square meters of concrete where the wellhead is located and safely fenced in.