Aug 19, 2007 - 04:03:45 CDT
BELFIELD (AP) - It's a long, bumpy drive from Williston to the site of 257, nestled in the Badlands some 30 miles west of Belfield. But once you get there, it's definitely something to see.Seemingly jutting out of the rock in this wild patch of land, the rig is near Theodore Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch. And it's big.
It has to be, explains Scott Shackelford the area manager for Key Energy, because it's going deep.
Rig 257 can go up to 12,000 feet laterally, while other rigs tend to top out at 9,000 feet. Because more pipe is going in the ground, more derrick capacity is needed to hold up to the pressure. "It takes a lot of horsepower to pull that," Shackelford said.
The rig currently is the largest re-entry rig in the Williston Basin, he said.
Nearby sits Rig No. 233, now 10 years old. At the time 233 was built, it was also the largest horizontal rig in the region. The older rig is now dwarfed by the new.
There's no sitting still for a rig this big, especially now that the price of oil has breathed new life into the Williston Basin oil world.
A team of reservoir engineers is in place to decide when and where 257 should drill, and moves take place every 30 to 90 days. From there, directional drillers come in to determine which direction to drill.
"They plan out what zone they want to be drilling in," Shackelford said. Then, they make decisions on where to drill and how.
Once work starts, the computer tells workers which direction the bit is going, so the crew has constant updates on what is happening hundreds of feet underground - for this particular well, more than half a mile underground by the time they are finished. To go from straight down into the ground to horizontal, moving in fractions of a degree at a time, it will take 850 feet of depth. Even after the action starts at the rig, nothing is set in stone.
On the rig, it's the tool pusher who calls the shots for the drilling contractor. Basically a location supervisor, the tool pushers are experienced hands who have worked their way up through the ranks of the drilling crew positions.
On No. 257, the tool pusher is Levi Liepki. Along with the "company man," or operator's representative, Liepki makes sure things run smoothly on the rig.
For this job, the company man is Troy Arnson, representing Whiting Petroleum, the Denver company that contracted 257 for a period of two years.
Liepki greets visitors to 257 with a clipboard in hand, asking anyone on the property to review safety procedures specifically relating to the days' activities on the well. Dressed in a red T-shirt emblazoned with the words "Make it SAFE, Handle with CARE," it is obvious what the supervisor's focus is in the field.
Liepki spends a large chunk of his time in the skid shack, a small trailer to the side of the rig. It may be small, but it packs a big punch. There is satellite Internet, television and phones so the guys on the rig can stay connected with the outside world, no matter how far away it might be.
In the "shack," Liepki has all the comforts of home - well, an abbreviated version of the comforts of home. On one side is his office. On the other, living quarters.
Liepki shares the space with Nate Halvorson, the tool pusher. Each will spend seven days on the rig - 24 hours a day - before switching off.
Sharing the space works well for the two, Liepki said, because they have similar styles in keeping up their home-away-from home.
"We are both neat freaks," he said.
A computer in the skid shack monitors such details throughout the rig as pump pressure, and checking to be sure the gas levels don't get too high.
Anyone in the Williston or Denver office who wants to check in, or anyone with Key, can log in to the system and monitor current activity.
In addition to monitoring, the computer keeps records of safety, maintenance and other issues, backing up records kept on paper.
Key may be what is known as the primary contractor, but Shackelford said as many as 50 contractors likely are involved, from trucking companies to parts suppliers to the people who bring bottled water.
"They're all interdependent," he said.
Each day, between 12 and 15 people are working on the rig. During rigging up and tear down, there could be as many as 30 around at a single time.
The rig is completely self-sufficient, with everything from generators to fuel tanks onsite. It has its own shop on site, complete with spare parts and many other things the crew might need.
Aside from its size, one of the things that makes the rig outstanding, Shackelford said, is the top drive. The mechanism is fully automatic. Because there are no cables, it doesn't move and won't fatigue. The 500-horsepower engine, with up to 24,000 pounds of torque, was built in Calgary, Alberta.
"It's designed to be 100 percent," Shackelford said. "It drills a lot better."
Another move is already in the works for the crew of 257. Once they are finished in their current location, they will move 6.4 miles west. Between the buttes and the river, there is no clear path to a location the crew can almost see.
A 130-mile trek towing the rig and all the equipment that goes along with it will be necessary.
Any time you get a group of guys from the oil patch together, you hear crazy stories of things they did "back in the day."
"Our whole industry needed to evolve," Shackelford said. "If you think you're too old to learn, you've given up."
For Key Energy and its employees, safety and doing the job right are priorities. "If it's safety-related," said Shackelford, "I don't care if he's been there one hour, he's got as much authority to stop it as I do."
Key Energy looks not just for a body to fill a slot, but for the right person to join the team.
Drug tests are administered pre-employment, along with an extensive background check looking for such things as partner and family violence, work place violence and theft.
Much of it is to help control turnover that costs the company millions of dollars.
The cost of hiring a new employee, then risking losing them, is measured in thousands, not hundreds. Shackelford said estimates put the loss at $9,600 for an employee who lasts 45 days, and $13,000 after 120 days.
Rehire committees and exit interviews have helped make a difference, Shackelford said.
Shackelford himself has been with what is now Key Energy for 27 of his 34 years in the oil industry. He started out in Montana, working for an uncle.
Over the years, the number of company rigs has fluctuated, dropping to as few as six in the '80s. It came back around though, and much of the 90s was spent acquiring rigs and building back up. Now, with locations in Sidney, Dickinson and Tioga as well as Williston, Shackelford finds himself with a total of 31 rigs to oversee.
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