Drilling contractor Deutag UK Ltd., Aberdeen, opened a drill-floor training simulator in the city for its own and clients' employees.
Deutag said today's drillers work from armchairs in a control cabin rather than standing behind the brake on the drill-floor, so they commissioned a simulator capable of replicating any modern drilling rig.
The unit has large projection screens outside a control cabin, onto which a 3D, real-time, computer-generated image of a drill-floor is projected. Inside the cabin, the trainees sit at controls and screens for which software can be written to simulate the particular rig a crew is training for.
Deutag said, "This new venture is a positive contribution to both efficiency and safety. Training drill crews to operate in realistic conditions, where they are fully involved in what feels like a real operation, gives levels of confidence and experience that would be difficult to acquire in any other way.
"The practical nature of the simulator also allows companies to develop and prove new equipment and procedures for their rig operations without risk or delays in their normal programs. It is anticipated that the first drill crew will start to train on the simulator in October."
