Daniel Day-Lewis as “Daniel Plainview” stars in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood.” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Vantage)

For those who attended the IADC/SPE Drilling Conference in Orlando, Fla., during the first week in March, there were no red carpets leading to the entrance. The paparazzi were nowhere to be found, and the rest of world didn’t have long conversations about “what the attendees were wearing.”

According to Schlumberger’s Oilfield Glossary, a “driller” is defined as, “the supervisor of the rig crew. The driller is responsible for the efficient operation of the rig site as well as the safety of the crew and typically has many years of rig site experience. Most drillers have worked their way up from other rig site jobs. While the driller must know how to perform each of the jobs on the rig, his or her role is to supervise the work and control the major rig systems.”

Does this qualify these individuals for celebrity status? Probably not, but without a doubt the majority of attendees at Orlando brought with them a vast amount of knowledge — knowledge gained from field experience.

On the other North American coast only a week before the Drilling Conference red carpet was rolled out, and Day-Lewis accepted an Oscar for his portrayal of Daniel Plainview, a down-and-out silver miner who transforms himself into a self-made oil tycoon on the frontier of California’s turn-of-the-century oil boom.

Paramount Pictures’ “There Will be Blood,” directed by P.T. Anderson, is loosely based on Upton Sinclair’s 1920s muck-raking novel “Oil!” Day-Lewis’s character is a wildcatter, which in the early 1900s covered every aspect of prospecting for oil, including land acquisition, rig design, drilling and production. While these roles have become more specialized over the last century, the driller continues to see the cusp of the action in the oil and gas business.

Of course, this is not the first time Hollywood has used a roughneck as the central focus of a motion picture. As early as 1934, when boomtowns were still prevalent, “The Oil Raider” portrayed Buster Crabbe as Dave Warren, a wildcatter who borrows US $50,000 from an investment banker to complete drilling on a promising well. The drama unfolds as J.T. Varley, the banker played by George Irving, attempts to wreck the rig so he can take over the prospect and its ample reserves.

In 1940, Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) released “Boom Town,” featuring Clark Gable as Big John Masters and Spencer Tracy as Square John Sand. The fast-talking friends con enough equipment and capital to develop their own oil fields, only to clash as they ultimately fall in love with the same woman. Although neither role garnered the actors the attention of the Academy, the movie was nominated for two Oscars including Best Cinematography and Best Special Effects, according to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).

Giant Productions released its epic film “Giant” in 1956. The movie won an Oscar for Best Picture and received nine more nominations including one posthumous nomination for James Dean, who died in a car crash during the late stages of filming. His memorable role as Jett Rink, a young West Texas wildcatter who strikes it rich, made him a legend. Dean’s role was not central to the film, but his rapid rise to wealth in the oil business provides a catalyst for the movie’s theme.

A more recent example of Hollywood’s affinity for drillers is seen in the 1998 film “Armageddon” (Touchstone Pictures). This time Bruce Willis
plays the role of Harry Stamper, an oil driller who is recruited along with his crew of roughnecks and geologists to help destroy a Texas-sized asteroid that is headed straight for Earth. With 18 days until impact, NASA trains the crew for space travel with plans to drill to the center of the asteroid and destroy it with a nuclear warhead.

The premise is implausible, to say the least. Anyone who knows anything about drilling knows that it can’t be done in zero gravity. However, Harry Stamper (Willis) plays a sympathetic role by sacrificing himself in the end to save the planet from total annihilation.

The “real” part of the film takes place in the opening scene, when the military lands on an unnamed offshore platform to introduce their plan to the ordinary, hard-working Stamper and his crew. What are the odds that a driller will someday save the planet? Slim to say the least, but it’s a nice thought. The Academy overlooked Willis for his efforts, but he did win a Saturn Award for Best Actor from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.

Hollywood knows drama like drillers know the oil and gas business. Of course, this analogy is outmatched by limelight. Why is it that when oil prices are impacted by newsworthy events, the news shows a gratuitous video clip of nameless roughnecks tripping pipe on an anonymous rig floor? If a driller can be the star of a movie, couldn’t they just as easily be celebrated in the news? Most people overlook their importance.

The Drilling Conference in Orlando, Fla., gave all those present a chance to meet some very interesting characters with years of rigsite experience. Most of them worked their way up from other rigsite jobs. They know how things get done. In spite of the technology and equipment that today’s industry relies upon, not one drop of oil could be produced without the hundreds of thousands of men and women who spend their days (and nights) on rig locations throughout the world.
Hollywood knows that drillers and roughnecks make interesting characters. And that’s a lesson that more people should learn.