Train ND Adds Simulators | Video

Chris Williams | 1/17/2013

When you`re driving along Highway 2, you can see oil rigs sticking up into the sky. What you don`t see are all the buttons, levers, and other controls used to make the rig function properly. Making sure a rig runs safely is a team effort, but even then things can go wrong. Train ND has added two new simulators that can make sure problems arise less often, and what to do when they do happen.

Train ND used to offer training in a classroom setting, but recently decided to upgrade. “I believe it was 2010 we went down to Louisiana and Texas, and toured a few other facilities that had the classroom portion of the well control simulators. Before that we were using the table top simulators,” said instructor Dennis Knudson.
They now have two state of the art simulator classrooms. The first room simulates a drill floor. It has just about everything a normal rig has. "What we get to do here is kind of like a role playing, or a Nintendo type thing, where we induce a situation where they have a well control problem,” said Well Control Instructor David Bartenhagen.

Problems range from a well blow out to a lighting storm shutting down pumps. "They get to go through the principles that we teach them, to get it under control, to get it circulated out and get back to work. Without having to get into the problem out in the real world, and maybe let it get out of control and burn the rig down,” Bartenhagen added.

At the other end of the building, Train ND works with people who want to become a lease operator. "We teach a lot of basic hydraulics as far as: control valves, motors, speed control, relief valves, so we do a lot of hydraulic trainers,” said instructor Billy Giles.

Giles says the role of a lease operator has gone from more manual labor to mostly automation. Having oil workers with knowledge of hydraulic and electronics could change things in the Bakken. "These are jobs that companies are looking at hiring employees that are going to be here for the long haul. These wells are going to produce for a long time to come.”

Train ND is just starting out well control and lease operator programs, but they are always looking to expand. "We will do what we can to build and develop whatever curriculum they need. This is one of the needs they had,” added Knudson.

Train ND is always looking to partner with oil companies for different programs.

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