Abstract
In the petroleum industry, new technologies and work processes are currently being developed as an innovation strategy for better, faster and safer drilling. In this article, some features of today’s work processes that contribute to successful operations are presented and discussed. The articulation work involved in handling the transient complexity of operations involves making black-boxed and invisible work processes visible and transparent. It is argued that this articulation work contributes to the organisation’s understanding and knowledge of the drilling processes and the dependencies that exist between different actors. In addition to contributing to ongoing problem solving, the articulation work also contributes to the awareness of possible future events. Following this insight, it is argued that efforts to improve operational efficiency and safety by introducing new tools and work processes should focus not only on the capability of new tools to support decisions and actions by instrumentation and automation, but attention should also be paid to the existing articulation work and its role in the accomplishment of work. In that way, the contributions of today’s articulation work can be strengthened instead of lost, and the outcome of the change processes can be even better than anticipated.
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Notes
The derrickman is in charge of the mud-processing area. Roughnecks are low-ranking members of the drilling crew. The mud logging company’s responsibility is primary well control.
The mud serves several different functions in a drilling operation. Firstly, it transports drilled cuttings from the bottom of the well to the surface. If this transport fails, the drill string might get stuck because of accumulation of cuttings in the well. At the surface, the cuttings are separated from the mud at vibrating sieves, called shale shakers. Secondly, the mud functions as a barrier against gases and fluids in the formations. Other functions involve using mud pulses to transport signals from between technical equipment downhole and control and interpretation equipment topside.
The shaker hand is a crew member dedicated to watching the shakers. However, he does not do this continuously as this is not his only task.
12 ¼″ (inches) and 8 ½″ are standard diametrical dimensions for drill pipes. In a drilling operation, one starts out with a large diameter and ends up with a smaller. In a typical well, the series of sections will be 36″, 26″, 17 ½″, 12 ¼″ and 8 ½″.
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This research has been funded by the Norwegian Research Council’s Petromaks programme.
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Haavik, T. Making drilling operations visible: the role of articulation work for organisational safety. Cogn Tech Work 12, 285–295 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-010-0139-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-010-0139-2