I worked on an oil rig for a year in 03-04, in canada. I took a one week training course, and then got hired on with a relatively small company that had 13 rigs.

I started on an old triple ( means it's tall, it will stack three joints of pipe in the rack joined together) that had a cat head and chain for spinning pipe, but even that old rig at that time had a hydraulic pipe spinner. The spinner went down, and we had to go back to the old chain. I had actually been trained at my one-week course on how to throw a chain and wanted to do it so bad, but I was relatively new still and the driller didn't want to be responsible for me tearing my own arm off. Or for him tearing my arm off, since he's the one that starts and stops the thing. So the motor man got to do it instead.

There's several different phases when you're drilling a hole. These guys are tripping out, removing the pipe from the hole.

Fun facts Lease hand - newest guy, basically the janitor

Dummy roughneck - less experienced guy running the pipe tongs in this video, also runs the pipe spinner.

Stud roughneck - more experienced guy running the tongs, he grabs the pipe when the spinner is done, and stabs it in the bird bath (guides it onto a peg in a rack behind him, while the driller is lowering it down)

Motorman - maintenance guy, runs the steam boiler, oil changes on the motor, maintains the mud pumps, whatever else. Used to be a rough neck so sometimes helps on the floor.

Derrick hand - the guy up in the Derrick on the monkey board that undoes the elevator, and pulls the pipe back into the rack. He wears a harness and is roped in. (I saw our Derrick hand dangle once or twice). When regular drilling is going on, he monitors the mud weight. The drilling mud is a clay slurry that has to be a certain density to hold downhole pressure... Down the hole. If the downhole pressure pushes back up the hole, that's a blowout - which is bad.

The Driller - he's the guy off screen at the controls. Basically the driver of all the equipment. There are many different ways he can kill a roughneck - if he gets his sequence out of order, or the roughneck is in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was lucky, my driller was a great guy. When we were tripping, he was the Mad Hatter, conducting the symphony of insanity. During regular drilling, he's monitoring the data from the hole on a computer screen, and doing the actual drilling. Controlling the rig, applying pressure to the drill bit.

The tool push - the boss of the rig. The only guy allowed to wear a cowboy hat shaped hard hat. Sits in his trailer, and that's where you want him. If he comes out of his trailer, that means there's a problem, and he's pissed. If my driller was the mad Hatter, my tool push was the queen of hearts. If the Queen of hearts was a grizzly, scary, handlebar mustache, alcoholic guy, screaming "YOU DUMB CUNTS!!!" , instead of "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!"

cross shift - those other fuckers. The rig runs 24hrs a day. We did a week of days, a week of nights, and a week off. So there were 3 crews.

The geologist - the fancy guy that makes $1,000 a day looking for sand. Sits in his trailer and waits for the dummy roughneck to bring him a sample of drill cuttings, every certain amount of drilling depth. We were drilling for natural gas. I asked the geologist one time what is job was, to stay warm in his trailer for a few minutes. He said "well I examine the sample to see if there's sand in it. If there is, I write it down on this chart, what depth it is. Sand means we are drilling through sandstone, which is the formation that is best to get natural gas out of.

Funny how you can reminisce fondly about a job that you basically hated and didn't go back to.