this article describes the staffing requirement for setting up a drilling exploration campaign

1 Senior Staff

The main members of the operations team are the Country Manager and the Department Heads: Drilling, Supply, Finance, Civil Engineering (onshore) and Safety Adviser.

Additional senior staff will be required at appropriate times, depending on the progress of the operation: drilling supervisor; drilling engineer; materials supervisor; transport supervisor;  construction supervisor; air operations supervisor; diving supervisor; field safety adviser;  doctor, etc.

Specialists may also be required on a temporary basis: surveyor; telecoms specialist; on-site geologist, palaeontologist, testing supervisor, etc.

1.1 Country Manager

The Country Manager  is responsible to the General Manager for the overall planning and execution of the operation, and in particular for the following aspects of it:

• safety and the environment;
• expenditure/cost control;
• personnel;
• contact with Government and local authorities;
• reporting to shareholders and partners;
• control of contractors in respect of matters of policy.

1.2 Drilling department

The Head of Drilling is responsible for:

• day to day contact with government and partners concerning well progress
• Maintaining records of operations and costs.
• Safe and efficient operation of the drilling unit and is the holder of the drilling services contracts.
• well programming aspects and all matters concerning reservoir evaluation.

The task of the Drilling Engineer is to assist (and stand-in for) the Head of Drilling, and in particular to perform the functions of a contract engineer.

The Head of Drilling will stand-in for the Country Manager during the absence of the latter.

Contract holder and single point of contact for drilling services contractors.

In a land operation the Head of Drilling will stand-in for the Civil Engineer during the absence of the latter.

1.3 Supply superintendent

Materials and Transport are usually combined in an company. The Supply Superintendent is the holder of all the Materials/ Transport contracts.

In an offshore venture, the Supply Superintendent should have marine experience. In a land operation with little routine land transport and with the contractors providing all the material, it may be decided to have a senior local staff person as the Supply Superintendent to deal with local purchases plus any import/export formalities which may have to be handled by the company itself.

He is responsible for transport safety and auditing - and even small operations have a considerable amount of contractor traffic which needs checking for compliance with agreed standards and procedures.

1.4 Civil engineer

A civil engineer will be required in an onshore venture. He is responsible for all construction activities, and is normally the holder of any civil engineering contract.

1.5 Safety adviser

The HSE Adviser can report either to the General Manager or the Country Manager. The choice is to be made by the General Manager. Responsibility for HSE in the field lies with the Drilling Manager and the administration of Safety Management Systems, preparing Safety Cases etc., will be the task of the Safety Adviser.

1.6 Drilling supervisor (Field)

The Drilling Supervisor is the Company Representative on site. It is his duty to ensure compliance of all contractors with the provisions of their contracts, and to act on behalf of the Company in day-to-day contractual matters. He must keep himself fully informed of the progress of the operations at all times, and ensure that his line supervisors are also kept informed by means of regular reports.

Being the company representative, he is also responsible for whatever the Company is responsible for, either directly or via contractors. It includes such activities as transport, rig hygiene and (on land) journey management and road maintenance.

1.7 Aircraft supervisor (Field)

A specialist aircraft operations supervisor will be required in the field only if there are intensive aircraft operations, such as in a heli-rig operation. For the majority of operations, in which the flying is for crew changes and inspections, an aircraft specialist is not required, and general supervision can be done either by the Supply Superintendent if the aircraft are based at an airport close to the office, or by his field representative if they are based in the field.

1.8 Materials supervisor (Field)

In general it is necessary to set up and operate a materials base to support rig operations and a materials supervisor will be required. If the operation of the base is contracted out the supervision will be included in the contract.

1.9 Transport supervisor (Field)

A dedicated transport supervisor will only be required if there are intensive road and/or river transport operations. The supervision of marine transport and "normal" road transport operations can be included in the responsibilities of the Materials Supervisor.

The duties of a transport supervisor will be to ensure that the proper standards are being maintained by the transport contractor, and to co-ordinate the transport of Company material. A company representative will be required at each end of the trip. If the delivery point is the rig, it will be the drilling supervisor.

1.10 Radio operators (Field)

For all offshore, and some land based operations, Radio Operators will be required. Their number and location will depend on the activity and on the telecommunications facilities installed. It may be possible to combine the position with another such as the medic, but if there is an accident on a work site the medic will not be available for radio duties

Note that in some countries radio operators may have to be licensed. This should be determined at the time licence applications are made.

His duties may include:

• helicopter flight progress monitoring;
• fixed wing flight progress monitoring;
• administrative duties associated with flight manifests;
• operating "journey management" procedures for land transport traffic;
• monitoring local communications networks and passing on messages.

1.11 Safety adviser (field)

The requirement for a field safety adviser will depend very much on the circumstances of each particular case.

In the construction phase, a field safety adviser may be essential to advise and assist in the implementation of an HSE management system, especially if the activity is spread over a wide area.

Drilling and Drilling Service contractors are now very much safety oriented. The site representative should be able to manage safety in the field without specialist assistance.

If a field HSE adviser is used, he has to be briefed very carefully, and it has to be emphasized that he is line staff reporting to the site representative rather than to the office based HSE Adviser with whom he has a functional relationship.

If it is decide to provide the site representative with an HSE adviser, to assist with the administration of an HSE system rather than for specialist technical advice, it could be considered to combine the position with that of site doctor.

2 Office based junior staff

If possible Junior Staff should be hired through local labour contractors, secretarial agencies, etc.

Employment contracts must adequately cover termination issues, as operations will be aborted after unsuccessful exploration operations.

2.1 Supply assistants

The number required depends upon local conditions, in particular the number of personal intervention required to ensure that documents are processed without delay by official agencies such as import/export control, customs, currency control, etc. At least one is required who can be devoted full time to this task (he should be experienced in import/export procedures and already have his own contacts within these agencies).

At least one more is required for local purchases, for carrying material to and from the airport for flights to/from the field, and for running errands in general.

If the company is responsible for the movement of contractor staff, it is very convenient if one person co-ordinates and keeps track of the movements of contractors in transit. This also has a safety implication, as public transport will almost invariably fall far short of Company standards.

A "meet and greet" person will be required. He can also act as a liaison between the Company and the aircraft contractor, making up flight manifests, etc. and collect tickets from the airlines, deal with re-validations, etc. He should have contacts among the customs staff at the airport, preferably already have an airport pass, and requires transportation of an acceptable standard. He will normally report to the Supply Superintendent and work closely with the other Department Heads and secretaries. For this job, it is recommended that an invitation to tender is sent to travel agents, who could assign one of their staff. Note that this is a full time job which requires initiative and willingness to work long and irregular hours.

All those assistants will report to the Supply Manager and should be "approved drivers".

2.2 Secretaries

Even for a small operation one or two secretaries may be required. One will be the Country Manager 's Secretary, and deal with confidential mail, petty cash and travel arrangements. The second will be mainly involved with sending the reports, filing correspondence, etc.

2.3 Radio operators

If a significant amount of use is made of radios then at least one office based radio operator will be required. If any contingency plans depend on HF radio links three operators will be required for a continuous 24 hours/day listening watch.

If there is much operational traffic he could be reporting to the Head of Drilling. If his main function is to maintain a listening watch in case of emergency he could well report to the HSE Adviser.

3 Other functions

3.1 Geologists

The Chief Geologist assigned to the venture will report to the Exploration Manager or the General Manager. Even if the mud-logging contractor provides experienced graduate geologists, an additional well-site geologist will be required. If a junior geologist has been involved in the evaluation of the prospect and the picking of the location, and has had a chance to examine sample material from reference wells or outcrops, it would be useful to have him on site as well.

3.2 Finance and Administration manager

The Finance Manager is responsible for the development and operation of effective controls throughout the Company and for the provision of financial information in respect of the operation. Areas of interface with the Country Manager  include:

• estimation of accruals;
• management of petty cash in the field;
• asset control
• payments to contractors and suppliers;
• insurance;
• office administration.

In most cases the Finance and Administrative Personnel will already have been in the area since the seismic acquisition phase. Their allocation and responsibilities depend to some extent upon local circumstances and the size of the venture. Since the number of staff allocated is likely to be small, it may be necessary to divide certain responsibilities of a general nature between available personnel.

3.3 Personnel manager

Depending on the size of the organisation a Personnel Manager may be required. A possible option may be a Group Senior Staff on a short assignment to get personnel matters set up and to recruit an Administrative Assistant locally, who can then take over. Selection should take into account the range and complexity of the duties involved. If a local Administrative Assistant is used the expatriate staff matters should be handled by the Finance Manager.

3.4 Doctor

Depending on the local facilities it may be necessary to have a Medical Doctor on the staff, either International staff or a local directly contracted doctor. If a doctor is required it is possible that a Government agency will wish to provide him.

If there is a full time doctor on the staff, and if he has the relevant background, his position could usefully be combined with that of "HSE adviser".

3.5 Personnel administration

In most cases there will be continuity in the terms and conditions of service between the seismic and drilling phases of an company. In the cases where a new company is being set up specifically for a drilling campaign this is a subject which will have to be addressed during the preparation phase.

a. Terms and conditions of service

Discussions should be initiated as early as possible on such topics as Location Allowance, level of spendable income, leave arrangements for office based staff and work/rest schedules for field based staff.

b. Contracts

Contracts of employment should be issued by the Company.

c. Payroll administration

Group Human Resources can run a central payroll for expatriate staff on behalf of the Company which does not have the facilities to run the payroll themselves.