A joint being pulled out from the Rotary Table

The drill floor is the heart of any

drilling rig A drilling rig is an integrated system that drills wells, such as oil or water wells, or holes for piling and other construction purposes, into the earth's subsurface. Drilling rigs can be massive structures housing equipment used to drill wat ...

. This is the area where the

drill string A drill string on a drilling rig is a column, or string, of drill pipe that transmits drilling fluid (via the mud pumps) and torque (via the kelly drive or top drive) to the Well drilling#Drill bits in mechanical drilling, drill bit. The term ...

begins its trip into the earth. It is traditionally where joints of

pipe Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to: Objects * Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules ** Piping, the use of pipes in industry * Smoking pipe ** Tobacco pipe * Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circula ...

are assembled, as well as the BHA (bottom hole assembly),

drilling bit Drill bits are cutting tools used in a drill to remove material to create holes, almost always of circular cross-section. Drill bits come in many sizes and shapes and can create different kinds of holes in many different materials. In order ...

, and various other tools. This is the primary work location for

roughneck Roughneck is a term for a person whose occupation is hard manual labor. The term applies across a number of industries, but is most commonly associated with the workers on a drilling rig. The ideal of the hard-working, tough roughneck has been ...

s and the driller. The drill floor is located directly under the

derrick A derrick is a lifting device composed at minimum of one guyed mast, as in a gin pole, which may be articulated over a load by adjusting its guys. Most derricks have at least two components, either a guyed mast or self-supporting tower, and a ...

. The floor is a relatively small work area in which the rig crew conducts operations, usually adding or removing drillpipe to or from the drillstring. The rig floor is the most dangerous location on the rig because heavy iron is moved around there. Drill string connections are made or broken on the drill floor, and the driller's console for controlling the major components of the rig are located there. Attached to the rig floor is a small metal room, the doghouse, where the rig crew can meet, take breaks and take refuge from the elements during idle times. Oseberg drill floor

External links

Schlumberger Oilfield Glossary

"Black Gold"
''Popular Mechanics'', January 1930 - large photo article on oil drilling in the 1920s and 1930s
"World's Deepest Well"
''Popular Science'', August 1938, article on the late 1930s technology of drilling oil wells * Oilfield terminology Oil platforms Mining equipment {{Industry-stub