Automated Oil Rigs Make Wyoming Oil Workers Nervous

Outside of Casper Wyoming is a monument to oil workers that made "OIL CITY" what it is. There are statues of men screwing in the next pipe that will be part of what is being drilled into the ground.

But what if those men, screwing that next section of pipe into place, were no longer needed.

Houston's Nabors Industries recently completed a deep drilling project with an automated drilling system.

This new system is a milestone in the automation of the oil and gas industry.

A robotic arm lifts and connects drill pipe on the new rig, where men used to have to do it by hand. 

This will save billions of dollars by cutting down on the number of men needed on-site to do that same work manually.

That news just made a whole lot of Wyoming oil field workers nervous.

This doesn't mean that no one will be on the rig working. There will be people there for many other tasks.

But what was seen and a dangerous job and a lot of heavy lifting can now be done by a "lock and load system" the screws in one pipe after the next all on its own.

Meanwhile, out in the Gulf of Mexico, robotic “dogs” like the ones made at Boston Dynamics are walking around the rigs. YEAH, I said robotic dogs.

Those robotic dogs walk around taking readings from gages, sending the data back to remote operators. They also “sniff” for methane leaks or spills. Once again that's what people used to do.

In the video below you can watch a video on how the drilling rig screws in new pipe.