Reusable Access Mats for Wellsite Workover Operations

Heavy-duty and rig mats gave an oilfield services contractor a stable, reusable pad for workover trucks and crane outriggers on saturated wellsite ground.

The wellsite

The customer, an oilfield services contractor working a mature onshore field in northern China, needed reliable ground access around a producing wellhead. The pad soil bakes hard in dry weather but turns to slick, sticky clay within hours of rain, and the pump jacks run continuously, so the crew cannot simply wait for the ground to dry before bringing equipment in.

The problem with bare ground

Workover visits bring in 40-tonne mobile cranes and heavy service trucks several times a season. On wet clay, loaded axles and outrigger points punch straight through the crust, leaving ruts that have to be regraded before the next visit — and a truck bogged at the wellhead stops the whole workover schedule, not just one vehicle.

Choosing the right spec

The team first looked at the standard access mat already used on the lease road, but the wellhead pad regularly takes crane outrigger loads well above what a standard panel is rated for, and a mat that flexes under a loaded outrigger is a safety issue as much as a maintenance one. Stepping up to the heavy-duty range gave the bearing capacity the crane work needed, while the lighter standard mat stayed in service on the lease road where loads are lower.

Matting for the pad and the crane

The contractor laid heavy-duty ground protection mats along the main truck route from the site entrance to the wellhead — roughly 900 m² — and drilling rig mats across the perforated work platform around the wellhead assembly itself. HDPE crane mats went under the outrigger positions to spread point loads from the workover crane's cribbing. The perforated deck lets the platform drain and keeps grip underfoot even in oily mud.

Result

A two-person crew relays the mats ahead of each workover in under a day, moving the stacked panels between pad and truck on a small trailer. The panels have carried at least five workover visits over one season without cracking, no truck has been bogged since they went down, and the site no longer needs the pad regraded between jobs — a real saving against rebuilding a gravel pad each time. The same set of mats has already been picked up and relaid on a second wellhead pad on the same lease, which is the main appeal of matting over gravel: the investment moves with the work instead of staying buried in one spot.

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