What are Monkey Boards?
All across the oilfield, many items are called weird names and “monkey boards” are no exception. In this video, I sat out to show you what monkey boards are as I drove by a local rig. My timing was impeccable and we even get to see more in the video than I imagined. Be sure to watch it, but just in case you can’t, below is a short description.
In short, monkey boards hold vertical stands of drill pipe. The monkey boards are the flat part that sticks out to the side of the rig’s derrick (or mast) close to the top. As drill pipe is “tripped in” or “tripped out” of the well, the monkey boards allow for the excess pipe to be racked back for a close reach to make future connections. Utilizing the monkey boards allow drilling to go faster, as entire “stands” of drill pipe can be racked back in the monkey boards.
To explain what a “stand” of drill pipe is, let’s examine a typical “triple” rig. A “triple” means that the derrick has the room for three entire joints of drill pipe to be above the rig floor. Thus, three joints of drill pipe make up a “stand.” The benefit to a triple rig is that the rig doesn’t have to make connections while drilling, “tripping in,” or “tripping out” except for every three joints (one stand). Thus, rig time is lowered compared to a “double” rig.
Since this sounds confusing, be sure to watch the video to see them in action! We even get to see the “derrickman” which is the person who stands up on the monkey boards to help rack back the stands of drill pipe.