Who knew that there were so many animals onboard with us? Not real animals, of course, but machines and tools that help the drillers do their work. Lots of them have animals in their names…I guess drillers like animals. Listed below are just a few!

Alligator Box—The 10m-long box in which we store plastic core liners. Perhaps called this because nothing else but an alligator could be stored in this.

Bigfoot—“Iron Roughneck,” the machine that automatically tightens drill pipe to a specific torque.

Bug Blower—A fan used to disperse noxious gasses from a work area.

Bull Plug—A seal for any sort of opening.

Casing Spider—A tool that is used in the rig floor to support casing; it uses dogs to press out into the casing to secure it.

Cat Head—Part of the draw works used to raise/lower the entire drill string, it acts like a winch to pull the chain that’s attached to the tongs (big pipe wrenches) they use to screw the casing together.

Catwalk—The area next to the drill floor where cores are processed immediately after they come onboard.

Dog House—Where the driller controlling the rig floor works.

Fish—Anything we break off or lose in the hole.

Fishing Tool—Any tool used to catch a fish.

Fox Stick—A long stick used to unlock the “hook” that holds the drill string so you can rotate it.

Goose Neck—A number of things; all the vents on the tanks have bent-over chimneys to allow gas to come out without letting water in.

Monkey Board—A platform 90 feet above the rig floor where a derrick man works handling the top of the stands (30 m) of drill collars.  

Mouse Hole—A hole in the rig floor where a piece of drill string or coring tool can be temporarily stored.

Pig—A piece of metal or other material you drop through the drill string that cleans the interior diameter by scraping the sides as it falls or is pumped through.

Pony Collar—A short piece of drill collar that can be used to adjust the total length of a string of pipe.

Pup—Similar to a pony collar, but a short piece of drill pipe, casing, or tubing.

Rabbit—A short, cylindrical piece of metal that you drop through a piece of drill pipe to make sure its interior diameter is fully open to allow coring and logging tools to pass through.

Rat Hole—The bottom of a hole that is deeper than the length of the casing string you want to put in the ground. If some of the hole were to collapse when you lower the casing into the hole, this collects the fill so you can still get the casing in (if you don’t, it can be really bad).

Rat Hole—A place to store a hexagonal piece of piece

Sheep shank—A knot to shorten up a line of rope.

Snake—A tool to pass wires through things (like drilling line over a sheave).

Spider coupling—Two spiders that connect the shaft of a motor to a shaft of a pump.

Spider deck—A name for the moon pool area; so called for all the wires for a riser tensioner (which we don’t have on the JR) that made it look like a spider’s web.