Energy

Most of the people on a pad work for a service or rental company, not the operator. What those businesses are, how they are paid, and what it takes to build one.

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Upstream finds and produces oil and gas, midstream moves and stores it, downstream refines and sells it. A plain guide to the three segments and who works in each.

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After a hydrostatic test, the water has to come out and the line has to be dried to the specification the product needs. How dewatering and drying are done with pigs, air, and nitrogen.

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A frac fleet is the set of pumps, blenders, sand and water systems, and crews that hydraulically fracture a well. What makes one up, why it costs what it does, and how the work is priced.

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Wireline companies run tools into a well on a cable to log, perforate, set plugs, and retrieve equipment. What the work is, what the equipment costs to run, and why the business is built on crews.

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Hot shot trucking moves urgent, smaller loads to the pad on a heavy pickup and gooseneck trailer. How it works, why it exists, and what the economics look like for an owner-operator.

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A well pad is the cleared, engineered site where one or more wells are drilled, completed, and produced. What sits on a pad, who works there, and why ‘from the pad’ means what it does.

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Pigging sends a device, the pig, through a pipeline under pressure to clean it, remove water, separate products, or inspect the wall. The basics of pigs, launchers, and receivers.

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Hydrostatic testing fills a pipeline or vessel with water, raises it above its working pressure, and holds it to prove it will not leak or fail. Here is how a hydrotest actually runs.

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Nitrogen purging displaces air, oxygen, or hydrocarbons from a pipeline or vessel with dry, inert nitrogen gas. What it is for, how it is done, and what the numbers on the trailer mean.

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