Richard Grayson’s Story
Richard Grayson – IADC Advisory Panel Member, Committee & Workgroup Member, Global Well Control Focal Point at Nabors
Well control training for offshore and federal land onshore was scheduled to begin in 1979 but was delayed until 1980. At that time, regulations were prescriptive and contained in 12 drilling orders under the auspices of the United States Geological Survey (USGS). In the early 1990’s, the (way too big) USGS was broken into smaller pieces and various functions given to smaller agencies. Well control training moved under the Minerals Management Service (MMS). MMS then brought drilling orders (A – L) into the Code of Federal Regulations and expanded them to 15 or so with well control training becoming 30 CFR 250, subpart “O”. Subsequently, the letters were changed to numbers and subpart “O” became, and is now, 30 CFR 250 subpart 1500-1510. Also, MMS announced that the prescriptive regulations were being removed and replaced with performance-based regulations. This caused great consternation among drilling contractors as it had the potential to morph into a system where Drillers and Toolpushers would need different training depending on the well control training requirements of the various operators. This was likely to change contract by contract.
In order to try to mitigate this looming mess, many of the larger drilling contractors banded together under the IADC Training Committee and created the IADC Well Control Accreditation Program (WellCAP). IADC liason Steve Kropla skillfully led the group of opinionated contractor members. Many and lengthy were the meetings to develop the curriculum that finally gained group approval.
In 1994, I was proud to join the IADC contingent that went to Herndon, Virginia to meet with MMS liaison Joe Levine and his team. We showed the MMS what we had created and requested it be included in the CFRs. In this way, drilling contractors could accredit their well control training programs to a standard that would not change customer by customer. MMS ultimately declined this request but did state clearly that WellCAP accreditation would be acceptable to MMS as a performance standard. By accomplishing this work, IADC paved the way for members to streamline their well control training programs to a standard that would be acceptable on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf regardless of customer. In 1995, performance-based criteria were written into the regulations and WellCAP (now Well Sharp) became a global standard.
I look back with pride at the way drilling contractors stood shoulder to shoulder and accomplished a significant work which has benefitted industry for the past 30 years.
