Mudlogger: Job description

Mudloggers collect and monitor information from drilling operations. This includes drilling data, gas and samples. They use a range of equipment and laboratory techniques, such as binocular microscopes, ultraviolet fluorescence and thin section analysis, and also monitor the following drilling parameters:

• speed of rotation;
• rate of penetration;
• pump rate;
• pit levels;
• cutting rate;
• mud flow rate.

Mudloggers usually work in oil field drilling operations on rigs and are contracted to an oil company via a service company. They feed information and advice back to the drilling team for operational purposes, which are then reported back to the oil company. Less commonly they work in water well and mineral exploration.

Mudloggers are also known as logging geologists, mudlogging geologists or mudlogging technicians. Mudlogging is also known as hydrocarbon well logging.

Typical work activities

Tasks typically involve:

• working in wellsite units collecting, processing, logging and analysing geological samples;
• using various laboratory techniques to evaluate detailed and complex data for signs of oil or gas;
• monitoring computer recordings of drillings;
• interpreting information and feeding it back to the drilling team to enhance safety and success;
• operating and maintaining a real-time computer-based data acquisition system, the advanced logging system (ALS), which records all aspects of rig activity;
• undertaking some on-site maintenance, for which a knowledge of electrical and mechanical systems is useful;
• taking on the primary health and safety role for the well through constant monitoring of all critical drilling parameters;
• predicting dangerous situations, such as over-pressured formations;
• assisting the wellsite geologist during coring operations;
• reporting to the wellsite geologist and the oil company in written reports;
• frequently acting as a drilling engineer, collating and then logging details of drilling operations in oil companies' computer systems.