I've got a niece and her husband is a driller for some company. We were talking about rigs and he said I wouldn't recognize a modern rig. No derrick man, a machine does it. 90' mouse holes, just about all top drives, power tongs all the time. Bits that last for weeks instead of days.
You’d enjoy watching a little gizmo called “Floor Hand” do its things. Had it on my rig in Brazil drilling in the Campos Basin.
It was strange to drive by a rig working coal bed methane holes around Durango, Colorado and see no one up in the Derrick.
Almost any redundant task can be automated and approximately 70% of all work in the USA is redundant tasks. At the basic level all you need is a Domain Expert, a Programmer and training on the joy sticks. It’s come to drilling’s business full speed. About any top drive rig can be modified very close to being fully automated.
An interesting read on what is coming and already here is “The Future of Work “ by Jeremy Rifkin.
