News
Weatherford Drilling International Rig 826
February 16th 2009
Weatherford Drilling International Rig 826 arrived in Western Australia during November 2008, and following a period of compliance and commissioning it is now in operation at Latent Petroleum’s Warro-03 well location.
The rig was built by National Oilwell Varco in Houston. IPS’ subsidiary, Fortune Drilling, acquired the rig off the assembly line in December 2007, but then sold the option to Weatherford International in May 2008. It is a 1500HP AC Ideal high ambient rig, and has a hook load capacity of 750,000 lbs. The derrick can accommodate 208 stands of 5”DP and 8 stands of 8”DC at the same time. The drawworks is a single speed gear driven with 2 motors at a combined power of 2300HP. In the driller’s cabin a cyber chair and touch screen monitors allow the driller to operate the rig easily and smoothly. The BOP, air tugger, Iron roughneck and pipe cat are all remote control operated, eliminating the risk of manual handling, and keeping the crew out of the way in all critical operations. It has TDS11SA top drive and two 12-P-160 mud pumps for maximum and fast operations. All senior crew members have been trained at the Houston training centre.
Bringing this new land rig technology here in Australia is beneficial to our industry. It is a significant improvement on operational safety and maximises the efficiency of drilling operations.
