Get an Oilfield Job as a Mudlogger in The On - Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling Industry
Ever wonder how oil and gas drilling companies know if they have hit pay dirt or not on a wildcat well? If you thought that oil went shooting up over the top of the rig, then that's not the preferred way these days. Mudlogging or Mud Logging is a challenging yet lucrative way for a person to make a good living in the industry.
Instructions
1. The first step is to ask yourself if you can handle a job that involves living in a travel trailer on a rig site or sleeping, when you can in crowded crew quarters offshore, yet be rewarded with good compensation at then end of the month. You will be away from home for sometimes weeks at a time, working in dirty, dangerous and harsh environments. Work hours are long and often unpredictable, often in 12 hour increments or tours, pronounced "towers". Salaries for mudloggers range from $50,000 per year plus daily per-diem expenses to $80,000 or more for the top end companies providing multiple logging services such as pore pressure analysis. You are paid by the day, from $175 plus around $35 to $70 per diem and with some companies a modest monthly salary. Since you will be staying on the well site for days on end, with no real expenses and nowhere to spend your money it is a good way to save up several thousand dollars in a couple of years. I have friends who have paid off their homes this way.
2. Second, if you are willing to do the above, then you will want find out what a mud logger or "mudlogger" does on the rig site and if it is something you would be willing to learn to do as a career or a stepping stone to a higher paying oilfield job.
The mudlogger typically works out of a small trailer or skid unit that is transported to the rig site and contains instruments that monitor the gas coming up the well bore as the oil well is drilled, as well as tracking the depth of the bit and analyzing the rock cuttings that come up in the drilling mud, hence the name.
3. The logger may or may not reside as well as work in the small quarters. At times companies allow workers to stay off premises in a motel for their 12 hours off (if that is their shift) if the job is on land. If it is on an offshore drilling rig then service hands such as mudloggers stay in crew quarters with bunks, several men to a room. In addition to 12 hours schedules some companies provide one-man services where one person will work 24 hours, day after day, napping when possible. It is not an easy life but compared to the life of the rig workers it is an easy and good paying job for independent, self driven persons who enjoy working in an exciting and challenging environment.
His duties will involve setting up the logging trailer's equipment, running small diameter plastic hose to the rig's mud tanks (where the drilling mud is returned to after being pumped down the drill pipe, back up the unlined hole and through the shakers which separate liquid from solid). The plastic tubing is attached to an agitator sitting down in the first tank the mud returns to. The mud, being also full of gas, gives off this gas in the agitator. It is sucked up by the tube, drawn into the trailer under vacuum and analyzed for it's component parts, such as methane, propane, etc. The amount and quantities of different gasses are drawn by a chart recorder onto a log of the well, correlated with depth. Depth is derived from a wire up to the drill floor, connected to the draw works or geolograph. These two parts of the log are automatic, but require constant calibration and inspection for clogs, shorts, etc. The other part of the mudlogger's job is not automatic. It requires that he take a sieve and collect cuttings as they come over the "shakers" or solid separators, fresh from the bowels of the earth. The mud logger washes them off, and after proper training, inspects and classifies what the cutting are after looking at them through a microscope. Typically the cuttings will be either limestone, shale or sand with quantities of dolomite, chert and other rocks mixed in. In addition he may be required to save bags of samples, wet or dried from certain depths. He will be in constant communication over speaker system with the driller on the rig floor as well as the r company man and also by phone to geologists at company headquarters, and to whom he will send logs. Job training can take around four to six weeks before a logger can work unsupervised.
4. If the condensed description of the job as described thus far sounds like something you would like to try then get your resume together, highlight the skills that pertain to this job, even if you do not have an oilfield background. Some smaller mudlogging companies will hire you. Jobs that show a history of self direction, leadership, military and mechanically related and technical jobs are a plus. What employers look for is knowledge of computers but nothing extreme, an ability to troubleshoot and solve problems independently and work with a minimum of direction as well as tolerate long hours and travel. Check out books from your local library such as "A Primer of Oil Well Drilling" and books on field geology and mineral identification. A basic understanding of geology is required. A degree in Geology and Earth Science is a sure way to land a job with the top Oil and Gas Logging companies such as Sperry Sun, a division of Halliburton. Smaller, mom and pop companies will hire anyone with a desire to learn so that is a good way to get a foot in the industry.
While mud logging jobs for the smaller land based companies can top out in the $50,000 range there is potential for much higher income working offshore and overseas for the majors once you have some experience. It is also a good way to get a foot in the door of the oil and gas drilling industry and work your way up the ranks to a job with a salary of $150,000 or more a year. Companies that hire mud logger trainees include Horizon Well Logging, Warren Logging, Selman and Associates, Geosearch Logging, Analog Services, Precision Well Logging and more. Get a good resume together, don't be afraid to call or cold call on these companies directly since they are alway hiring in todays busy drilling market. For more information on mudlogging and for oilfield job listings see the sites in the resources section below. The book "A Nontechnical Guide to Petroleum Geology, Exploration, Drilling and Production" is an excellent starter book.
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