Oil Rig Moves: How It All Works

An oil rig move is one of the most important operations in onshore drilling. When you finish drilling one well, you need to move the entire drilling rig — the mast, the drawworks, the engines, the mud pumps, everything — to the next well location. The faster and safer you can do that, the more money you make. Rig moving is a specialized skill, and there are several different ways to do it.

Traditional Rig Moves: Disassemble and Truck

The traditional way to move a rig is to take it apart, load it onto trucks, drive to the next location, and put it back together. This is how rig moves have been done for decades.

It works like this: first, you disassemble the rig into big pieces — the mast comes down in sections, the drawworks comes off, the substructure breaks apart. Then you load each piece onto a heavy-duty truck or lowboy trailer. A big onshore drilling rig needs 20-50 truckloads to move it. You drive the convoy to the next location, then you reassemble everything.

A traditional rig move takes 2-5 days, depending on the size of the rig and the distance. It's labor-intensive, and it's expensive — you're paying for a big crew, lots of trucks, and all the time the rig isn't drilling. But it's reliable, and it works for long-distance moves.

Modern Rig Moves: Skidding and Walking

Modern drilling rigs use hydraulic skidding systems or walking systems to move short distances. Instead of taking the rig apart, you use hydraulic cylinders to lift the whole rig up and slide it forward. You keep doing this until you're at the next well location.

This is much faster — you can move a rig a few hundred meters in a day, without taking it apart. That means you spend more time drilling and less time moving. For drilling contractors, that's a big deal.

But it only works for short distances. If the next well is more than a kilometer or two away, you still have to disassemble the rig and move it by truck. And it only works if the ground is flat and stable — you can't walk a rig up a steep hill.

FAQ

Q: How many people does it take to do a rig move?
A: A traditional rig move needs a crew of 10-20 people — roughnecks, truck drivers, operators, and supervisors. A skidding or walking rig move needs a smaller crew, usually 5-10 people. It depends on the size of the rig and how complex the move is.