When it comes to breaking down drilling rigs and getting them on the road to the next job site, time is money—for both drilling companies and the support services contractors they depend on. That’s why Wyotana Oil Field Service Co. relies on a Hot and Mighty General mobile jetting system to tackle large-scale cleaning jobs at drilling rigs as quickly and efficiently as possible.
“We use it mainly to clean invert mud off drilling rigs and cranes,” says Trenton Meyer, who co-owns the Cheyenne, Wyo.-based business with his wife, Jody. “The mud gets everywhere on the rig, and drilling companies are required to clean it before they can head down state or county roads.”
It’s no small task to clean a huge drilling rig. Once it’s broken down for transportation, the parts and components might fill anywhere from 50 to 100 semi trailers, Meyer says.
VARIABLE STEAM AND PRESSURE
“Invert mud isn’t easy to get off, so I was looking for a unit that could generate steam and high pressure, with the option to generate more steam and less water volume and pressure, or less steam and higher volume and pressure,” he adds. “With the Hot and Mighty system, I can have one or the other or a combination of both.”
Mounted in an enclosed, tandem-axle, 14-foot-long trailer with curb-side, roadside and rear doors, the General – fabricated by T. George Podell & Co. Inc. – features two waterjetters that can generate 3,500 psi at up to 5.7 gpm with one gun operating, and 3,500 psi at 3 gpm with two guns operating; a 500-gallon plastic water tank; high- and low-pressure soap injection; and 600 feet of hose on swivel reels. It can produce steam heat up to 250 degrees F as well as hot- and cold-water pressure.
“We like to use a long hose because a drilling pad might take up two to three acres of space, so it’s a lot easier to pull a hose around than to keep moving the trailer around the crowded site,” Meyer says. “In addition, sometimes they want the rig cleaned while it’s down, while other times they want it cleaned while it’s still standing, which means we’re working at a height of 110 feet near the top of the derrick.”
Established in 2004, Wyotana serves customers at natural gas and oil fields in Wyoming and Montana. It provides high-pressure steam cleaning, trenching and roustabout services, and also rents generators and shipping containers for storage. As a former manager of gas-drilling rigs, Meyer knows what kind of services the drilling companies need, and that experience helped him confidently move into a new service arena by buying the Hot and Mighty system a year and a half ago.
“We didn’t do steam cleaning before that,” Meyer notes. “We were hiring a company to come down from North Dakota to subcontract for us on steam-cleaning jobs, because no one else in the area was doing it. So I saw a need.”
PRODUCTIVITY PLUS
“Out here in Wyoming, it’s hard to find certain services because companies don’t want to travel the long distances required by jobs,” he continues. “And when you do hire them, they charge you $1 per mile to travel 600 miles … so if you do it yourself, you cut out all those mileage costs.”
Meyer also likes the fact that he can increase productivity by running four guns (two off of each jetting unit) instead of two when he needs extra manpower; that setup decreases water volume, but the unit can maintain the needed water pressure, he says.
“It saves us time and labor because we can have four guys pressure washing instead of two,” he says.
How valuable is the unit to Meyer’s business? He says it generates about 40 percent of the company’s business, in terms of sales volume. Better yet, the unit – which cost $55,000 – paid for itself relatively quickly, he adds.
“It’s a very profitable investment,” Meyer says. “I’m actually looking at getting another one because of the demand for this kind of service. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I know that when you see an opportunity, you have to jump on it.”
After all, time is money.
