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A Day in
the life of a Service Rig Roughneck
Before we
talk about a roughneck’s life first let me explain to you
what a service rig is. When most people hear the term “oil
rig” they typically think of a drilling rig operation which
drills new wells and installs casing pipe.
Service rigs are different than drilling rigs in many
aspects; for starters they do different things to a well.
While drilling rigs are used to drill a new well service
rigs perform services on wells that have already been made.
Service rigs performs such tasks as completing wells that
have just been drilled, fixed wells that do not produce oil,
and abandoning old wells that have stopped producing.
Service rig operations are much smaller then drilling rig
operations and are usually manned by a crew of 4-6 people. A
service rig crew generally consists of a tool push (the
boss), a driller (second in command), a derrickhand, and 1-2
roughnecks. If you are new to the oil patch (e.g. have no
experiences in the oil patch [green]) you will start out on
a crew as a roughneck.
In the chain of command the roughneck is on the bottom rung,
or in other words is the lowest man on the totem pole, but
hey, we all start out somewhere right? The service rig
crew’s roughneck(s) is responsible for all of the menial and
unskilled tasks the other crew members don’t have time to do
(or want to do).
A roughneck on a service rig is responsible for everything
from making the coffee in the morning to greasing the axels
on the rig. On a typical morning the roughneck will wake up
between 5 am and 6am (depending on how far away from the
jobsite you are), prepare for work, and wait in the crew
truck. The roughneck should always be the first person in
the crew truck; this will show the tool push and driller you
are ready for a hard days work. Once the tool push, driller,
and derrickhand make their way to the crew truck you are off
to work.
Once at work the roughneck should be the first one in the
doghouse (crew quarters) and making coffee and turning on
the heat. Once you have the coffee brewed and the heat
cranked the roughneck should get his work gear on which
includes coveralls, hard hat, steel toed boots, and work
gloves. When you are dressed you should go out to the rig
and get all the tools ready for the day. It is important
that the roughneck be the first one out of the doghouse
every morning, again this shows your boss you are a hard
worker.
Once all of the tools are ready you wait outside for your
driller to come and tell you what to do. When you are
outside you do anything and everything your driller tells
you to do, and if he is not around you do whatever the
derrickhand tells you to do. They may ask you to do anything
from making them coffee to cleaning out the restroom, and if
they don’t have anything for you to do then you find
something to clean. A roughneck should always be doing
something and should never be doing nothing unless told to
take a break.
The job description of a roughneck may not sound pleasant
but their current pay rates are more then that. A typical
roughneck’s salary right now in Alberta ranges from $22 to
$28 per hour depending on what company you decide to work
for plus you are able to make certain bonuses such as danger
pay, out of town allowances, overtime, and holiday pay which
can add up to quite a bit of money on top of your regular
wage.
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