Walking Oil Rigs Spur Cheaper, Quicker Drilling in Supply Glut
- Per-rig production up 40% since crude price plunge began
- Drillers "incentivized to continue'' by improved equipment
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Have you ever seen an oil rig walk?
Some of the newest rigs can travel hundreds of yards to the next well under their own power, lurching along like 150-foot-tall robots on hydraulic legs that raise the equipment five inches at a time, nudging forward at about a foot per minute. While that sounds slow, it is faster and cheaper than dismantling a rig and trucking the parts to a new site nearby.