Nabors Alaska Drilling Trains Roughnecks for North Slope

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

Anchorage-based Nabors Alaska Drilling has established a school for

roughnecks in Alaska. Dubbed “The Fundamentals of Rotary Drilling,” the school is located at Nabors/Peak Oilfield Service Co. base camp in Deadhorse. Jim Gaffaney, a longtime Nabors employee, is the head instructor.

“Jim is one of the most motivated senior professionals in the drilling business,” Fritz Gunkel, Alaska Drilling and Wells manager for BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., said in a recent interview. Nabors and BP developed the idea of a school as a way to increase the level of professionalism in drilling. “We can’t rely on experience anymore” says Gunkel “This is a true trade school for the drilling business.”

Nabors’ quality and marketing manager, Clyde Treybig, who set up the school and its program, said the training covers “everything from site preparation to well completion, including rig systems and components, tools and overhaul drilling terminology.

We teach the students well profiles to provide a basic understanding of casing,

cementing and down hole tool requirements of typical wells. We also reinforce safety and hazard analysis skills, as well as environmental safety,” Treybig said. After two non-consecutive weeks in the classroom the students continue their education on a drilling rig.

Some students already have rig experience, as the criteria for attendance at Nabors is one year or less on a rig. “We cross train them by taking them out on different rigs such as coiled tubing or moving them from offshore to a land-based rig just to give them as much exposure as possible to a variety of rigs,” Treybig said.

“We have lots of participation from the operators and service companies such as Baroid, FMC and Tuboscope who have sent in speakers to talk about their particular jobs,” he said.

“Previously, the only formal education available for rig workers was outside Alaska or through the vocational school in Seward or University of Alaska Anchorage's Mining and Petroleum Training Service department,” Treybig said.

“This is a great change in our business and I bet it changes their (Nabors) business,” Gunkel said.