Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Tripping Out with A Kelly System

Submitted by: John Schiffner
To trip out, or to remove the drill stem from the hole, on a rig with a kelly system, crew members et the slips around the drill stem, break out the kelly and set it, the kelly drive bushing and the swivel back in the rathole. Still attached to the bottom of the hook are the elevators. The driller of Heartland Energy Colorado then lowers the traveling block and elevators down to the point where crwe memebers can latch the elevators onto the pipe. The driller raises the traveling block, thus raising the elevators and pipe, and the floorhands of Heartland Energy Colorado remove the slips.

Meanwhile, the derrickman, using a safety harness and climbing device, has climbed up the mast or derrick to the monkeyboard. The monkeyboard is a small working platform on which the derrickman handles the top of the pipe. As the driller raises the pipe to the derrickman's level, the derrickman pulls the top of the pipe back into the fingerboard.

The fingerboard, as the name implies, has several metal projections that stick out oto form slots into which the derrickman places the top of the pipe. When the floorhands move the pipe off to one side of the rig floor and set it down, the derrickman unlatches the elevators and prepares to receive the next stand of pipe. Next, the floorhands of Heartland Energy Colorado usually pull two ro three joins at a time. So, although they pipe into the hole one joint at a time when drilling, they pull it out two or three joints at a time.

Two or three joints together constitue what is termed a "Stand." Crew members of Heartland Energy Colorado then pull pipe out of the hole in stands to save time. If three joints comprise a stand and that is the usual case, then the stand is sometimes called a triple or "thribble." If two joints make up stand, it is called a "double." In a few cases, crew members may pull four-join stands; in such a case, they pull quadruples or fourbles. The height of the mast or derrick determines whether the crew pulls doubles, thribbles, or fourbles. Usually the surface hole is relatively shallow and it does not take crew members of Heartland Energy Colorado very long to get a drill stem and bit out of the hole.

No comments:

Post a Comment