A NEW GENERATION DRILLING RIG
Ray Brazzel had a vision to bring new technology into the land drilling industry. He didn’t want to just dress up the old style rigs with new innovations. He wanted to  design a rig that reflects the next generation. A generation of computers, a workplace designed to let the machines do the heavy dangerous work and keep employees out of harms way, and a rig that is compact, easy to move and rig up with efficiency. This rig would include an electric top drive, triplex pumps, iron derrickman and iron floorhand, hydraulic disk brakes and air brake. All the latest technology along with well trained crews to make it drill like a dream.

The process began three years ago. Conversations with various companies was the first step. A plan began to come together and rough drafts were taking form. Mike Cowan of M.D. Cowan Company along with Scott Milliren were a tremendous help allowing us to pick from their suppliers ofthe super single rigs built in Odessa, Texas. M.D. Cowan Company also built the pipe arm and accessories. Anson Parker, International Derrick Service, took on the task of designing a derrick and sub to pick up and lay down pipe like a single, rack stands like a triple, and be compact and fast moving. Mike Hamilton, owner of Rig Tech in Odessa,designed and built the 1200 horsepower drawworks with a 436 WCSB Eaton Airbrake and hydraulic disc brakes both with a closed loop cooling system and powered by a 1150 horsepower AC motor. Steve Cope of IDE in Houston accepted the task of building the drillers cabin and VFD house to handle two 12V4000 Detroits with 1200 KW generators. Steve’s company IEC Systems with president Mike Pilkington were also responsible for wiring and automating the rig. Ward Newton with another IDE branch built the 1000 gallon hydraulic power unit.The 275 ton, 600 horsepower AC top drive was furnished by Canrig with help from Paul Nicholson and Lou Caycedo. Iron Derrickman of Calgary Canada provided the iron derrickman which is the same as the ones Bandera has on the three doubles that have been in the field since the end of 2006.Gray EOT built the remote controlled iron floorhand.

Then the time came to put all the parts in one area so that they could be unitized. “Back to the drawing board” was not an uncommon procedure as the ideas of many had to become one workable unit. A committed team of welders, mechanics, electricians, roughnecks, truckers and supervisors worked tirelessly to meet Bandera’s goal and put the rig to work in the field. What an accomplishment and how great it is to see it in action. It meets all of Ray’s expectations and more. It is “A NEW GENERATION DRILLING RIG”. A drilling rig specifically designed and constructed to rack 90’ stands of pipe and collars on trips and make connections while drilling with no personnel in the derrick nor on the rig floor.