Rotary Drill Operators, Oil and Gas

No automatable tasks identified for this role — its real, individually-assessed tasks consistently read as augmentable (95%).

• Maintain records of footage drilled, location and nature of strata penetrated, materials and tools used, services rendered, and time required.
• Train crews, and introduce procedures to make drill work more safe and effective.
• Plug observation wells, and restore sites.
• Direct rig crews in drilling and other activities, such as setting up rigs and completing or servicing wells.
• Remove core samples during drilling to determine the nature of the strata being drilled.
• Connect sections of drill pipe, using hand tools and powered wrenches and tongs.
• Maintain and adjust machinery to ensure proper performance.
• Monitor progress of drilling operations, and select and change drill bits according to the nature of strata, using hand tools.
• Repair or replace defective parts of machinery, such as rotary drill rigs, water trucks, air compressors, and pumps, using hand tools.
• Bolt together pump and engine parts, and connect tanks and flow lines.
• Start and examine operation of slush pumps to ensure circulation and consistency of drilling fluid or mud in well.
• Cap wells with packers, or turn valves, to regulate outflow of oil from wells.
• Observe pressure gauge and move throttles and levers to control the speed of rotary tables, and to regulate pressure of tools at bottoms of boreholes.
• Locate and recover lost or broken bits, casings, and drill pipes from wells, using special tools.
• Push levers and brake pedals to control gasoline, diesel, electric, or steam draw works that lower and raise drill pipes and casings in and out of wells.
• Position and prepare truck-mounted derricks at drilling areas specified on field maps.
• Clean and oil pulleys, blocks, and cables.
• Count sections of drill rod to determine depths of boreholes.
• Line drilled holes with pipes, and install all necessary hardware, to prepare new wells.

• Weigh clay, and mix with water and chemicals to make drilling mud.