MATERIAL INCENTIVES AS ONE OF THE CONDITIONS FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF MULTIBOTTOM DRILLING OF EXPLORATORY WELLS

P. I. STEPANOV

(Presented by the scientific seminar of the Department of Techniques for the Exploration of Mineral Deposits)

The Twenty-First Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in its resolution on the control figures for the development of the national economy of the USSR for 1959–1965, obliged the workers of the country’s geological service to increase the economic efficiency of geological exploration work “by introducing the most advanced methods of geological exploration, new mining-and-drilling equipment, and geophysical apparatus.”

One of the conditions that make it possible to increase the efficiency of geological exploration work is the proper use of the principle of the personal material interest of workers in the geological service in the results of their labor.

The personal material interest of workers in the country’s geological service in the results of their labor is manifested in the receipt of wages in accordance with official salaries, hourly wage rates, and additional payment in the form of bonuses. An especially large role in increasing material incentives is assigned to additional payment.

In this connection, it is very important to establish correctly the indicators according to the results of whose fulfillment bonuses are accrued both to workers and to engineering-technical and managerial personnel. These indicators must promote an increase in the economic efficiency of the geological exploration work being carried out. At present, much work has been and is being done in this direction.

Thus, bonuses for engineering-technical and managerial personnel of geological organizations are paid on the basis of the fulfillment and overfulfillment of the plan for reducing the cost of geological exploration work, with the obligatory fulfillment of other indicators of the production and financial plans; workers on a piece-rate wage system are paid for the fulfillment and overfulfillment of monthly plans in physical volumes, and time-rate workers are paid for the high quality of work. Along with this, at present the list of indicators of the production plan of geological organizations has been somewhat changed. The change has also been made in the direction of creating conditions for increasing the economic efficiency of geological exploration work.

In accordance with the new planning procedure, the production plans of geological prospecting parties, expeditions, and territorial geological administrations (trusts) no longer include the indicator “plan in physical terms”; and for parties and expeditions conducting detailed exploration, the indicator “cost of exploration per unit of mineral reserves,” etc., has been introduced. The plan for physical volumes of drilling work is established only for drilling crews by the party management, on the basis of the planned assignment for productivity per rig-month.

The changes made in the planning of geological prospecting production and in the bonus system for workers of the country’s geological service open up broad prospects for the wide introduction of the advanced experience of innovators, achievements of science and technology, and rationalization and invention proposals—in particular, for the introduction of multibottom drilling of wells and the newest technical means that make it possible to extract the core completely from exploratory wells, etc.

In fact, in order for engineering-technical and managerial personnel of geological prospecting parties to receive bonuses, it is necessary to plan the introduction of such organizational and technical measures as would create conditions not only for fulfilling and overfulfilling the plan for reducing the cost of drilling work, but also for fulfilling and overfulfilling other indicators of the production plan—in particular, for example, the cost of exploration per unit of mineral reserves.

At the same time, the planned organizational and technical measures must contribute to the fulfillment and overfulfillment of output norms by workers. In this case the workers will also support the introduction of these measures, since conditions will be created not only for fulfilling and overfulfilling output norms, but also for fulfilling and overfulfilling the plan for physical volumes, which will make it possible to receive higher wages under direct piecework and additional payment in the form of bonuses.

Multibottom drilling of exploratory wells, used in exploring steeply dipping ore bodies (beds), regardless of the depth of occurrence, and horizontally occurring bodies at considerable depth, as is known, makes it possible to substantially reduce the cost of exploration per unit of mineral reserves, owing to a reduction in the total footage drilled, in the hauling of derricks and headframes, and in the dismantling and installation of equipment.

Under the old procedure of bonuses and planning, with the principal indicator being physical volumes, employees of geological organizations, even when favorable geological conditions were present, rarely applied directional multibottom drilling, since they were not materially interested in it. Since the evaluation of the production and economic work of geological prospecting parties and expeditions and of the activity of engineering-technical and managerial personnel was carried out chiefly by the number of linear meters of wells drilled, the simplest methods of drilling them, not causing unnecessary trouble, were provided for in the design and planning of work. Drilling deviated boreholes in multibottom drilling of wells, as the first experiments showed, is somewhat more complicated than drilling the main borehole. Thus, with the directional downhole method, the process of drilling off a branching borehole is somewhat complicated and labor-intensive, and in most cases its mechanical drilling speed is somewhat lower. In addition, with this method the accident rate increases because of complications with the deflecting wedge already during the drilling of the deviated borehole, etc.

Despite the material incentives created for engineering-and-technical and managerial personnel for the broad introduction of multibottom drilling of exploratory wells into geological-exploration practice, it is also necessary in the future systematically to improve the methodology and technique of setting deflecting wedges, of sidetracking (cutting in) the deviating borehole, and of reducing the expenditure of working time on these operations. If this is not done, multibottom drilling of exploratory wells may again fail to become widespread. Here is why.

A study of the handbook of uniform output norms for exploratory drilling (1) and the handbook of enlarged norms for the design of geological-exploration work (2) shows that the normative data given in them, which take into account the drilling conditions for deflected wellbores, are not coordinated with one another.

Thus, if, in calculating the time expenditures that form the basis for estimating the cost of drilling exploratory wells, the enlarged time norms for drilling the deflecting borehole from the point of curvature to the completion of the well by drilling are increased by 15% (2, Table II), then when setting the output norms for the drilling crew during the actual drilling itself, this change is not made. Correction coefficients are introduced only for the slowed drilling of the deflecting borehole over the interval of the first 10 meters after the sidetrack, i.e., over the interval of intensified curvature of the well (1, Table 38).

By taking the drilling conditions of deflected wellbores into account in different ways, the indicated normative data create favorable conditions for engineering-and-technical and managerial personnel in calculating the estimated cost and, conversely, place the workers of the drilling crew in unfavorable conditions when determining output norms.

Under such circumstances, a contradiction arises in the material interest in introducing multibottom drilling between engineering-and-technical and managerial personnel and the workers: the former will be interested in applying this method, while the workers, on the contrary, will be opposed, since in this case they lose not only bonuses but also receive less wages at tariff rates because of failure to fulfill output norms when drilling deeper than 10 m from the start of coring of the deflecting borehole.

If, moreover, one takes into account that after the transfer in 1960 of the country’s geological-service workers to a seven- or six-hour working day and the new conditions of labor remuneration in exploratory drilling, new output norms were introduced that were increased on average by 11% compared with those previously in force, then the danger of a further strengthening of the negative attitude on the part of workers toward the introduction of multibottom drilling increases still more.

In order to create a material interest in introducing multibottom drilling not only on the part of engineering-and-technical and managerial personnel but also on the part of the workers of drilling crews, it is necessary either to justify technically and economically the introduction of correction coefficients to the output norms directly for the drilling of deflected wellbores, or, as indicated above, to improve the methodology and technique of setting deflecting wedges, sidetracking deflected wellbores, and especially the technological regime of their drilling. Apparently, taking into account the need for a systematic increase in labor productivity, it is necessary to take the second path and in the near future to abolish or significantly reduce the correction coefficient to output norms used in estimated calculations of the cost of drilling operations.

Bringing the principle of material interest into full conformity with the results of labor expenditures both on the part of engineering-

technical and managerial personnel, as well as workers, will make it possible to introduce multibottom drilling of wells on a broad scale, as a result of which the economic efficiency of geological exploration work being carried out will increase significantly. This will make it possible to identify and study commercial reserves of mineral raw materials for our country’s rapidly developing industry with the least expenditure of public funds and in shorter time periods.

REFERENCES

1. Unified output norms for geological exploration work. Exploratory drilling. Gosteoltekhizdat, 1959.

2. Handbook of aggregated norms for the design of geological exploration work. Issue V. Exploratory drilling. Gosteoltekhizdat, 1960.