DRILLBITS
Monthly eNewsletter from the IADC

Drilling Contractor (DC) is the official magazine of IADC and covers industry news for both land and offshore. The Association started in 1940, and the magazine started just six years later. DC serves as a resource for all industry news that’s relevant to drilling contractors and well construction. According to DC’s Vice President, Editor, and Publisher Linda Hsieh,

One of the most impactful and unique elements of DC is its ability to provide a medium where the industry gets to tell its own stories from its own perspectives. The oil and gas industry is often misunderstood and undervalued, and sometimes even disparaged and demonized. External media sources have a history of taking industry stories and distorting them. DC provides a platform for showcasing how high-tech our industry is and how seriously we take safety, training, and sustainability. As Hsieh describes,

It is imperative that our industry has a channel like DC that gives us a collective voice and provides opportunities to communicate our stories.

Over the years, industry’s focus has evolved and shifted towards topics like automation, digitalization, and ESG. DC prioritizes shifting its focus to correspond with what is most important and relevant to its readership, continuing to provide content that is progressive and innovative. Some recent articles that highlight this are:

• Autonomous drilling at scale: How close are we?
• Zero-emission power-generation system in development for land rigs using hydrogen fuel cells
• Safety tools in the digital age
• Low-carbon technologies moving from concept to reality at the rig site

In terms of focus and content, DC also showcases the people who work in our industry through the “Perspectives” feature, which is in every single issue of the magazine. In DC’s most recent issue, the “Perspectives” feature spotlighted Jacob Bruster with Unit Drilling, who serves as Chair of the IADC Permian Basin Chapter. Earlier this year the magazine spotlighted Fred Growcock, who is retired from Oxy but stays active in the industry through the IADC Technical Publications Committee. Other spotlights this year include young professionals such as Jamie Elrod, Sales Director of the Americas with Baker Hughes and Co-Founder of “Flipping the Barrel” podcast, and Grace Hurley Fosdick, who works at Nabors and serves as Co-Chair of IADC’s Young Professionals Committee.

Drilling Contractor magazine also delivers in-depth reporting on critical topics in digital formats:

• The DC Digital Reader is a digital mirror of Drilling Contractor, providing the same high-quality drilling and completions content as its printed counterpart. DC’s Digital Reader allows everyone in the industry easy access to all DC articles, whether they’re reading from home, at the office, at a rig site, or while traveling. Digital Readers also include some exclusive content not found in the print magazine, such as additional articles, video/audio interviews and links to additional resources. Check out the Sept/Oct Digital Reader.
• The Drilling Contractor news website – DrillingContractor.org – is the official website of DC magazine. The website is regularly updated with industry news and information in the form of articles and video interviews. The site currently includes more than 7,000 articles and videos on a variety of industry related topics. DrillingContractor.org serves as a host for archived versions of the magazine, as well as for a growing collection of virtual panel discussions (VPDs). VPDs are high-interest session videos, each lasting approximately an hour, featuring expert panelists and relevant slides on the pressing issues confronting the industry.
• eNews from DrillingContractor.org is an electronic newsletter that presents original news and features, as well as information from key industry players, updates on IADC activities, exclusive reports from IADC conferences, reader surveys and more. The newsletter currently has over 23,000 subscribers.

Through its print and electronic formats, Drilling Contractor will continue to serve the industry and IADC Members by keeping them informed and connected, and by providing a means for industry to tell its stories. For more information, please visit DrillingContractor.org or subscribe to the magazine.