Drilling Rig Major Components

Drilling Rig Major Components

• Hoisting system – raises and lowers the bit

• Rotary system – turns the bit
• Circulating system – Handles drilling fluid
• Power system – powers the rig
• Well control system – controls the well
Parts of a Drilling Rig
Hoisting system

• Derrick
• Crown block
• Travelling block
• Drawworks
• Drilling line
Derrick / Mast
• In drilling, the standard
derrick has four legs standing
at the corners of the rig floor
and reaching to the crown
block.

• It holds the travelling block

and top drive via the crown
block. It allows for racking
back of stands of pipe.
• It allows tools, winches,
lights etc to be hung on the
rig floor
Crown Block
Assembly

• An assembly of pulleys on a
common framework; in
mechanics, one or more
pulleys, or sheaves, mounted
to rotate on a common axis.

• an assembly of sheaves
mounted on beams at the top
of the derrick.
Travelling block
• The travelling block is the big
pulley system that holds the
top drive of kelley.
• It moves up and down via
the drawworks, drill line and
crown block.
• It is very similar to the hook
or hook block on a crane.
Drawworks
• The hoisting mechanism on a
drilling rig.

• It is essentially a large winch

that spools off or takes in the
drilling line and thus raises or
lowers the drill stem and bit.

• Drawworks often have an

electric brake called elmago
or baylor brake connected to
them.
Drill line
• The drill line is a big wire that
moves the travelling block up
and down.
• It is fastened between the
dead line anchor and the
drawworks.
• The part of the line that is
moving is called the fast line
(attached to the drawworks).
• The part not moving is called
the dead line (connected to
the dead line anchor).
Rotary system
• Bit
• Tubulars
• Monkey board
• Kelly and kelly drive bushing
• Top drive
• Pipe handling system
• Tongs
• Iron roughneck
• Rig floor overview
Drill Bit
• The cutting or boring element
used in drilling oil and gas wells.

• The tool used to crush or cut

rock and create a borehole.

• on the bottom of the drillstring

and must be changed when it
becomes excessively dull or stops
making progress.

• Drill bits is in almost all cases

bought and paid for by the
operator.
Drill Bits
Tubulars
• The drill string or tubulars
consist of drill collars, heavy
weight drill pipe (HWDP) and drill
pipe as well as subs such as cross
overs etc.
• The drill string turns the bit and
transports mud down through the
string and out through the bit.
• Drill collars are very heavy and
provide the weight that pushes
the bit down. The top drive does
not push anything.
• In the drill string you can also
have special tools, such as LWD
and MWD (logging and measuring
while drilling) tools.
Monkeyboard
• The derrickman’s working
platform.
•As pipe of tubing is run into
or out of the hole, the
derrickman must handle the
top end of the pipe, which
may be as high as 90 feet (27
m) in the derrick or mast.
•The monkeyboard provide a
small platform to raise him to
the proper height for handling
the top of the pipe.
• Most manual monkey board
are today replaced by
automatic racking systems.
Kelly and Kelly
Bushing
• Kelly is the heavy steel member,
three-, four-, six-, or eight-sided,
suspended from the swivel through
the rotary table and connected to the
topmost joint of drill pipe to turn the
drill stem as the rotary table turns.

• It sits in the rotary table.

Kelly Bushing is a special device that,

when fitted in to the master bushing,
transmits torque to the kelly and
simultaneously permits vertical
movement of the kelly to make hole.

•It may be shaped to fit the rotary

opening or have pins for transmitting
torque
 Top Drive
Top Drive
• An automated drilling and pipe
handling system. Essentially a big
“black and decker”
• time-saving ability to trip pipe
without removing the power
swivel, drill down with doubles or
triples (called a stand)
 Pipe handling system

• Pipe handling systems consists of

various different machines such
as pipe rackers, V-door machines,
tailing arms etc. that lifts and
transfers pipe from one place on
the rig floor to another.
 Tongs

• Used to make up (tighten) and break out pipe

(take it apart again)
• Has largely been replaced by iron roughnecks
 Iron Roughneck

• A pair of automatic tongs

that is used to make up and
break out pipe.
• Also includes a spinner to
spin out the drill pipe.
• IRs are a much safer option
to use than tongs.
Rig Floor
Circulating system

• Drilling fluid and mud pits

• Mud pumps
• Shale shakers
• Desander, desilter and degassers
Drilling mud and mud pits
• Drilling mud is a mixture of a
base such as water, diesel or
other fluids mixed with various
chemicals.

• The mud helps to cool the bit,

move cuttings up to surface and
stabilize the mud.

• All mud has a weight that has

the effect ensuring the hole does
not collapse or that gas enters the
well.

•Mud is stored in mud pits in the

hull of the rig, which is essentially
big steel tanks
Mud Pumps
• A large, high-pressure
reciprocating pump used to
circulate the mud on a drilling rig.

• A typical mud pump is a two-

cylinder or a three-cylinder piston
pump whose pistons travel in
replaceable liners and are driven
by a crankshaft actuated by an
engine or a motor

• Also called slush pump and

usually operated by a Derrickman.
Shale Shaker
• A vibrating screen used to
remove cuttings from the
circulating fluid in rotary
drilling operations.

• The size of the openings in

the screen should be carefully
selected to be the smallest
size possible that will allow
maximum flow of the fluid
through with none of the
cuttings.

• Also called Shaker

 Shale Shaker
Screen In Action
Degasser
• The device used to remove
unwanted gas from a liquid,
especially from drilling fluid.

• A device that removes air or

gases (methane, h2s, co2 and
others) from drilling liquids.

• If the gas content in the mud is

high, a mud gas separator or
“poor boy degasser” is used,
because it has a higher capacity
than standard degassers and
routes the evolved gases
away from the rig to a flaring area
complete with an ignition source.
 Comparison
Desander Desilter
Flow of drilling mud
Power system system

• Main engines
• Power distribution systems
• Back up generators
• Hydraulic / pneumatic compressors
Well control system

• Blowout preventer (BOP) stack

• Annular BOP
• Ram BOP
• Control Unit
• Choke and kill manifolds
• Diverter
• Drilling Riser (on semis and drill ships)
BOP stack

• A series of big valves that are

made to hold back pressure
from the well if gas enters.
• Sits under the rotary table,
on the well head and the pipe
and bits pass through it.
• The BOP is one of the most
important safety features of
the rig.
Annular BOP
• A sealing device used in a
drilling operation that consists
of a large valve, which
provides a seal in the annular
space between the pipe and
the wellbore, or on the
wellbore itself if no pipe is
present.
• Annular BOPs can close on
all sizes and types of pipe
RAM BOP
• A blowout preventer that
uses rams to seal off pressure
on a hole that is with or
without pipe.

• Also called a ram preventer.

• The rams are made to fit

specific sizes of pipe, but can
also be variable, blind or
shear rams.
Blowout Preventer
Control Unit
(Accumulator)

• The assembly of pumps,

valves, lines, accumulators,
and other items necessary to
open and close the blowout
preventer equipment.

• Most familiar name is BOP

closing unit
Choke Manifold
• An arrangement of piping
and special valves, called
chokes.

• In drilling, mud is circulated

through a choke manifold
when the blowout preventers
are closed.

• attached to the wellhead

allows flow and pressure
control for test components
downstream for well testing.
Diverter
• Essentially a smaller annular
that sits right under the rig
floor.

• Has an outlet that directs the

returned drilling mud back to
the flow line.

• Is attached to two big

connections that goes over
the side of the rig.

•Is used as a last minute safety

feature to direct flow if the
BOP fails.
Riser
• 75 feet long steel pipes only
used on semi submersible rigs.

• Is connected from the rig

floor on the sea floor and the
BOP on the sea bed.

• Bouyancy modules are

attached on the outside to help
the pipe float.

•Usually has peripheral lines

which allows as choke and kill
lines.
Questions