ESSAY: Petroleum drill bits on the second-hand market
At Finn.no, the Norwegian internet-based used market, there is a small niche for used drill bits, most of them originating from drilling oil wells in the offshore operations off the coast of Norway. They come in many sizes spanning from smaller versions weighing from 2-5 kilos, to very large ones at over 100 kilos. Most of them are sold by men who have some kind of connection to the petroleum industry. They might be retired offshore workers or mechanics; others might have been given the drill bits as a gift from others. It is not a communal market, and it is unknown how many of the sellers are aware about each other.
These objects literally spearhead the action of drilling. Because of this they are extremely robust, hardened and solid objects made from steel. They are mounted at the end of drill probes, and with the use of a mechanism their crowns spin around while being fed with a drill fluid that eases the drilling process. It is achieved by cooling it down and creating alluvium, a mix of mud and fluid that makes the drilling more efficient. They travel to and from oil rigs for deployment and repairs, before they in the end are retired. Once retired they seem to find their way to the men who worked with them, to museums or even oil company`s headquarters.
They also make a journey in terms of value. They are manufactured and put to use as high-quality equipment with instrumental value, drilling wells and making sure that petroleum resources become available and extractable. After their drilling lifecycle ends, their purpose become more undesignated. It is obvious that they have been of great importance, and this suggests that they should be commemorated and kept. They thus assume more of a symbolic status, as monuments, totems or even icons of the endurance an achievements of the industry and the hard labour of the workers on the rigs. They have endured weather, raw oil, dirt and long hours to make sure that the state petroleum of the people of Norway, is found and brought to the surface.
The workers who get the chance to bring a drill bit home and seem to have the idea to use it as a symbol of their connection to the oil industry. But the drill bits at Finn.no are presented not only as monumental, symbols of industrial heritage but also as potential decorative objects. They might be turned into chandeliers, flowerpots or ash trays. Some are sandblasted and covered with gold paint.
But in many of the cases where they are sold on Finn, they have become idle, ruinated objects, lying around rusting in gardens or garages, covered in dust like in some kind of (post-)post-industrial hibernation, ending their second life cycle as petroleum kitsch objects in living rooms.The idea then comes to sell them, and the question again arises about their value. The sellers see the drill bits in relation to the emotional bonds to their working career and a sense of pride. It then makes sense to settle for a selling price that reflects these feelings.There is also an expectation that it should be acknowledged by the market, and that the drill bits should change owner at a high price. However, many of the drill bits with a higher pricing stay on the market for a long time, seemingly disappearing without being sold. In some of my discussions with sellers they might also be ambiguous as to the value of the pieces themselves.
In my one of my negotiations with the seller of a drill bit, I experienced an emotional response to the suggestion of lowering the price. I was questioned if I did noy recognize the importance of the object or understand the historical and economic value of the activities the piece had been involved with. I had asked about its history and connection to the seller, and it became clear that the seller had been working on many oil platforms, opening up wells in with technical challenges, to reach the petroleum that had in its turn provided large incomes when the flow of oil and gas had been established. It was a bit surprising then, to discover that in spite of these unquestionably important achievements I had managed to upset the seller by suggesting a lower price. It seemed I had exposed a vulnerable undercurrent in the culture of workers and revealed that there is a changing condition for the world’s most powerful industry, and that it creates an insecurity in the workers.
For my research the drill bits have become a way of metering the self-image of the industry, as seen by the men who work in the offshore business. The ones who have worked whole careers in the industry and been a part of the golden age of Norwegian petroleum, to now see how the industry that has provided the country with work, an increase of salary levels, and a gigantic state oil fund become a source of dispute and increasing politization.