石油公司
1. Within the petroleum industry, the drilling of wells is of paramount importance: without a well - a simple ( yet complex ) hole in the ground ?/FONT> there is no way to get oil and gas. The drilling phase of petroleum, then, becomes a subject worth considering in detail. Basically, the people directly involved in drilling are employed by operating companies, drilling contractors, and various service and supply companies.
在石油行业里，钻井是最重要的：没有井－－地里一个简单的（然而也是复杂的）洞－－就没有其他取得油气的方法。这样，石油的钻井变成值得详细考虑的题目。起初，直接与钻井有关的人们被经营公司，钻井承包人，和各种服务和供应公司所雇佣。经营公司是那些工业金融家以及由钻井承包人和服务公司提供服务的主要用户。
2.Oprating companies are the financiers of the industry and are the principal users of the services provided by drilling contractors and services companies. An operating company, often called simply an operator, is a person or company who actually has right to drill and produce petroleum that may exist at a particular site. The operator acquires the right by buying or leasing it from the person or persons who own the land under which petroleum may exist. An operator can be a major company, such as Exxon, Shell, Gulf, Texaco, Mobil, Atlantic Richfield, Phillips, Conoco, or Standard, no name but a few. Or an operator can be an "independent" a relatively small and largely unintegrated company or individual who produces and sells oil and gas but is not engaged in the transport, refining, or marketing of it. A major oil company, on the other hand, is a large, integrated company that not only produces oil and gas, but transports from the field to the refinery and plant, refines or processes it, and sells the general public and other consumers.
经营公司，通常也叫经营者，是在特定地点实际有权钻井和生产可能存在的石油的个人或公司。经营者通过向拥有地下可能埋藏石油的土地的人或人们购买或租赁获得权利。 经营者能是一些大公司，比如或者经营者可是一个独立的或大或小的非集成公司，或者是生产和贩卖油气但不包运输、炼制或零售的个体。
3. A major oil company usually initiats the sequence of events that leads to the drilling of oil and gas wells in foreign fields, but independent oil operators pay for most of the wells in the United States. In fact, about 80 percent of all wells drilled in the U.S. today are financed by independents.
从另一方面说，大公司，是一个大的集成公司，不仅生产油气，还从油田运输到炼油厂和工厂，炼制或处理油气，再卖给普通公众和其他消费者。一个大的油公司通常都在外国打油气井，但独立的石油经营者为绝大多数的美国油井投资。事实上，今天美国约百分之八十的油井由独立经营者投资。
4. Operating companies, both large and small, have found it more expedient to utilize the men, equipment, and experience of drilling contractors to perform the actual drilling of a well. In fact, about 98 percent of all drilling in the U.S. is done by drilling contractors. Like an operating company, a drilling company may be small or quite large. Regardless of size, the main job of the contractor is to drill a hole to the depth and specifications set by the operating company. Usually, the operator sends out an invitation to bid to several drilling contractors who be knows have the equipment and integrity to drill the well to the specifications stared in the bid invitation. Drilling contractors must be competitive in prices and services to stay in business. If a contractor is awarded the contract, it is because his is the best bid. It may not be the lowest bid, since past performances and proven capacity are also factors to be considered.
大大小小的经营公司都发现利用钻井承包商的人，设备和经验来打井比较有利。实际上，美国土地上打的井中约 98％是由钻井承包商干的。和经营公司一样，一个钻井公司也有大有小。无论大小，承包商的主要工作是按经营公司设计的深度和规格钻一个孔。一般，经营者把投标书给几家承包商，通知他们钻井承包商必须要在价格和服务上在本行业中具有竞争性。承包商若能得到合同，是因为他的出标最好。它可能不是价格最低的，过去的业绩和能力也是考虑的因素。
5. The contract for making hole goes to a drilling contractor, but the operating company is usually the one that awards other contracts to the service and supply companies. (It should be noted, however, that the contractor also relies on supply companies to provide him with tools and services he needs to drill and to keep his rigs in good working condition.) Since it takes various expendable supplies such as drilling mud and bits to drill a well, the operator and contractor buy the materials from companies that specialize in a particular service.
打井的合同送到钻井承包商，但经营公司通常也把其他的合同送给服务和供应公司（应该注意，承包商为了得到钻井所需要的工具和服务，保持他的装备正常运作，也依赖供应公司。）由于在钻井中需要各种各样如钻井泥浆和钻头之类的物资，经营公司和承包商向在专业上能提供特定服务的公司购买材料。
6. Also, specialists such as exploration geophysicists (people who work to petroleum deposits) often operate under contracts separate from that made with the contractor. Indeed, after all the various attendant service needed to drill a well are summed up, there could be as many as a hundred service and supply companies working at the drill site at one time or another. The coordination of all these services is supervised by the operating company, its managers, and engineers. Full cooperation and assistance of the drilling contractor is required in almost every instance.
同时，承包商也分别把合同交给如勘探地球物理学家（探测石油沉积的人）那样的专家。实际上，累计钻一口井所需要的服务，在一个钻井场地同时或不同时有一百多家服务或供应公司工作。这些服务的监督和协调由经营公司的经理或工程师担任。几乎每一个场合都需要钻井承包商的协作和帮助。
