Chpater 3 – Surface Equipment

Publisher Summary Air and gas drilling operations require some special surface equipment. This chapter explores the variety of equipment required in air and gas drilling operations. Along the flow line leading from the compressors to the drilling rig standpipe is an assembly of pressure gauges, temperature gauges, valves, a volumetric flow rate meter and a safety valve. Also on the flow line is a valve allowing the compressed air flow to be diverted either to the atmosphere or to primary and secondary jets in the blooey line. These components are explained in detail. The flow line to the standpipe of the drilling rig acts as a manifold, collecting the compressed air outputs from the primaries. The valves in the flow line at the booster compressor allow the airflow from the primaries to be diverted to the booster when high compression of the air is needed. All air and gas drilling operations require the use of a rotating head, which is installed below the rotary table. The blow-out preventer (BOP) stack is always used when subsurface over-pressured dangerous gases or fluids might be encountered while drilling. The rotating head was developed to keep air or gas with entrained rock cuttings from flowing to the drilling rig floor through the rotary table kelly bushings. The BOP equipment was developed for use in drilling deep wells for the recovery of oil and natural gas. The BOP stack can be composed of two types of preventers: the ram-type blowout preventer and the annular-type preventer.