Drilling Rig Types

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Jackknife

Most commonly used onshore rig. Rests on the stand & breaks apart into 4 to 6 pieces & each part carried on a truck
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Jacking up
Also an onshore rig, is a jacknife

Portable mast
Much smaller than jacknife, for 20 m or less drilling with about 10m pipe It is retractable, so can be moved on a truck Usually used for completion, shallow holes

Barge rig

Barge is brought to the position, sunk by filling ballasting components. Mast raised & drilling starts. Once finished, mast is put down, empty water & move barge. Used for very shallow/flat water (less than 3m) like river or lakes. Contains all equip. from land rig

Self-contained platform
A big platform & expensive contains all required stuff Limited to medium deep water (up to 400 m), as if deeper, structure becomes complicated, i.e. more expensive & not usable for ROV (remote operative vehicle) Used to support all loads (wave, wind, ) Conventional mast is used as it stays for a long term. Up to about 30 holes drilled from the mast

Tender platform

A very small platform, so due to not enough room, one or even two barges or ships may towed to locate equipments such as separation sys., pumps or restaurant & etc.
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Submersible

A fixed bottom supported big platform constructed from concrete or steel. It floats & moved to position. Then compartments are ballasted by water. Conventional mast is used & stay for a long period. Mast can move to drill different wells. Limited to 100 m water depth
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Jack-up

A bottom supported platform with high mobility. Legs (3-4) work (in/)dependently. Limited to max 100 m water depth cantilever: one kind of jack-up platform, in which the mast can move to drill on top of the platform
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Semi-submersible

pontoons

Can drill resting on bottom (platform floats to position & ballasted to lower) or in a floating position (pontoons float & anchored in place) Preferred to be used for production well. Works in very deep water (3000 m) Tends to dampen the wave motion
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Drillship
Ship floats to position & drilling starts! Not ballasted Ship is free to move at 6 degree of freedom. So always facing incoming waves to dampen wave motion Very fast to move, less stable & everything locates above water level Used preferably in exploratory wells. Can drill deep water Anchor or dynamic positioning system can be employed (in latter case, it is more costly than semisubmersible rigs)

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Tension legs platforms

For deep water (>350 ft) but kept in place using tendons (pipes) which are connected to sea bottom. Tendons are in tension (i.e. forcing rig lowering water) but buoying force 12 applies upward so as a result the platform is stable

Spar-buoy (caisson)
Huge hollow steel cylinder shape (40 m diameter, 400 m height!) floats horizontally & brought into position. Then placed vertically & anchored in place. Rig assembled on top Very stable but expensive & difficult to move it. Limited to 1000 m water depth. Few of them in use
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Compliant platforms
Bottom supported platform, where its structure looks linearly. Used in up to 1000 m water depth. Platform complies with wave motion It is the newest generation of offshore platforms Tension legs & spar-buoy platforms are also the new generations of offshore platforms

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Common type rigs used

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