DEPARTMENTS • PERSPECTIVES
Richard Grayson,
Nabors: Being
flexible is critical
to a long career
in an industry of
constant change
BY STEPHEN WHITFIELD,
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
The oil and gas industry draws people for
many reasons. Maybe they have family
in the industry or a love of geology, or
perhaps they were awed by the sight of a
drilling rig at a young age. Some people,
however, are drawn to it for more practical
reasons. For Richard Grayson, Senior QHSE
Manager at Nabors Industries, it was a
way to make good money.
Though he grew up surrounded by rigs
in Noble, Okla., Mr Grayson never thought
much about a career in oil and gas. He was
good at the natural sciences, and upon
entering the University of Oklahoma in
1973, he decided to study zoology and ani-
mal biology.
Drilling didn’t enter his life until after
his freshman year, when he joined a friend
on a summer job working as a floor hand
on a land rig in Oklahoma.
“I needed money to go to school. It was
more money than I could make anywhere
else. I worked there all summer and just
kept doing it,” he said.
That first rig hand job became a means
for Mr Grayson to help pay for college. He
would work summers, weekends, holiday
breaks, or whenever another floor hand
would want a day off. Soon, Mr Grayson
realized that the oilfield offered a better
future than zoology, so he kept working
on rigs, even after graduating from the
University of Oklahoma in 1977.
He worked for multiple drilling com-
panies in Oklahoma over the next sev-
eral years, switching jobs depending on
the needs of the company and the rig:
Sometimes he was a toolpusher, some-
50 times a derrickman. By the early 1980s,
he’d become a rig manager.
The constant ups and downs of life in
the industry ultimately began to wear on
him though. “I kept getting laid off because
a rig would finish a contract. You never
knew what would happen.”
After the industry went into a downturn
in 1982, he switched gears and took a teach-
ing job at the University of Oklahoma’s
well control school. In 1985, that position
led to a job in Houston as a well control
instructor at Reading and Bates (R&B),
an offshore drilling contractor. In 1990,
Mr Grayson was promoted to HSE and
Training Supervisor, and in 1995 he was
named Training Manager for International
and Deepwater Operations. Throughout
the years, he taught well control and con-
ducted safety audits worldwide.
Mr Grayson said his time at R&B taught
him a lot about leadership. “I learned how
to be a supervisor in a multinational cor-
poration,” he said. “There are certain things
you must do to be a good leader. Listening
to your direct reports, being willing to
train because most people want to move
up in the world, understanding all aspects
of your people’s jobs, and controlling your
emotions are a few.”
In 2000, he joined Nabors Industries as
QHSE Manager, attracted by the change in
scenery and the chance to work onshore
again, which he had not done for near-
ly two decades. As part of this job, Mr
Grayson developed new strategies around
health, safety, environment and training.
He also oversaw various aspects of Nabors’
safety training protocols when the nature
of safety training was rapidly changing.
In 2016, Mr Grayson added Global Well
Control Focal Point to his title. In addition
to overseeing various safety protocols, he
conducts crew assessments and well con-
trol equipment readiness inspections. He
also manages the company’s well control
documents, several of which he authored,
and leads the company’s internal well con-
trol committee.
Volunteering with IADC
Mr Grayson is no stranger to IADC. He
first got involved in the 1980s, during his
training days at R&B. He helped restart the
HSET Committee, then called the Training
Committee, after it had been suspended
Richard Grayson, QHSE Manager and
Global Well Control Focal Point at Na-
bors Industries, has been involved with
IADC for many years in activities related
to safety, well control and training. He
has chaired multiple committees and
now sits on an advisory panel for the
IADC WellSharp accreditation program.
for lack of interest. His first appearance in
this magazine came in the June/July 1990
issue, when he co-authored an article on a
well control worksheet that helps control
slanted-hole kicks.
In the decades since, Mr Grayson has
chaired the IADC Training and Well
Control committees. He is a member of the
HSET Committee and sits on the advisory
panel for the WellSharp accreditation pro-
gram. He also sits on a three-person panel
that reviews well control instructor appli-
cations for IADC.
Mr Grayson said his work with IADC
focuses on helping drillers work in chang-
ing times. For instance, the WellSharp Live
distance learning option was developed
during the COVID-19 pandemic, but its
adoption has continued as drillers have
adopted more remote work into their oper-
ations. Change is the one constant he has seen
in the industry, he said, and learning to
adapt is critical to thriving in the future.
“Some people would say that oil and gas
is a sunset industry and that we’re on the
way out, but I don’t believe that. I do believe
– and it’s been true in my career – that you
need to be willing to change,” Mr Grayson
said. “There will be a lot of change in our
industry, and it will be a very interesting
time. You just need to embrace it.” DC
M A R C H/A P R I L 2023 • D R I L L I N G C O N T R AC T O R