Drilling and Well Site Hazards

What you'll learn

• Describe the hoisting, rotating, circulating, power and well control systems of a drilling rig and the other rig and unit types on well sites, and identify where each stores energy and who is exposed to it.
• Explain the roles on drilling and service crews and the operator's well site supervisor, and apply communication practices, stop-work authority, short-service employee programs, fitness for duty and fatigue controls.
• Map the Canadian rules for drilling and servicing, including provincial OHS law and Alberta's oil and gas wells requirements, AER directives such as Directive 036, the BC Energy Regulator, Energy Safety Canada IRPs and well control certification, and explain who holds which duty.
• Identify line-of-fire and pinch-point hazards in pipe handling, tongs, slips and elevators, calculate hook loads and fast line tension, and apply engineering, procedural and personal controls on the rig floor.
• Control falls from the mast, monkeyboard and other elevated positions, explain the derrick emergency escape device and rescue planning, and prevent dropped objects using energy estimates, secondary retention and surveys.
• Recognize the hazards of temporary high-pressure iron, including mismatched hammer unions, and apply ratings, pressure testing, red zones, restraints, bleed-off and verification of zero energy on mud pumps, iron and hydraulic systems.
• Identify chemical, dust, gas and NORM exposures in the drilling fluid system, control caustics and powders, and interpret exposure results for extended rig shifts.
• Explain hydrostatic and formation pressure, the causes and warning signs of kicks, shut-in and kill at awareness level, accumulator capacity and each worker's role in well control, drawing on the lessons of major blowouts.
• Plan rig moves, rig-up and rig-down, including transport, overhead power lines, lift plans, mast raising and lowering, and walking or skidding pad rigs near live wells under simultaneous operations plans.
• Describe the hazards of well servicing, including service rig masts and loads, live and sour wells, rod pumps, swabbing, wireline and perforating, coiled tubing, snubbing and fatigue from daily moves, and their controls.
• Identify the hazards of completions and hydraulic fracturing, including red zones and stored energy, overpressure, respirable crystalline silica, chemicals and fuel, flowback and traffic, and apply their controls.
• Use bridging documents, coordination practices and a ranked hazard review to manage multi-employer drilling and completion sites, especially at handovers.