Glossary
Rotary Drill Operator Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential rotary drill operator terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key rotary drill operator vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in rotary drill operator training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- BOP
- Blowout preventer.
- Casing
- Pipe that lines a well.
- Connection
- Adding a joint of pipe.
- Directional drilling
- Steering a wellbore.
- Drawworks
- Hoists the drill string.
- IADC report
- Daily drilling report.
- Kick
- An influx of formation fluid.
- ROP
- Rate of penetration.
- Shut-in
- Closing the BOP to control a kick.
- Standpipe pressure
- Pump pressure at the rig.
- Toolpusher
- The rig supervisor.
- Top drive
- Rotates the drill string.
- Torque
- Rotational force.
- Trip
- Pulling or running pipe.
- Weight on bit
- Downward force on the drill bit.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Rotary Drill Operator practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Rotary Drill Operator training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.