Even if your drill pipe still drills, it doesn’t mean it’s worth running. Running it to failure is costly. Its value depends on management: regular inspections catch wear before it causes failure and help extend service life. Treat pipe management as a financial strategy, not just maintenance. Drill pipe is a major HDD asset, not a consumable. Review your practices and develop a lifecycle plan to maximize each rod’s value before replacement.
Treating Drill Pipe Like an Asset, Not Just an Expensive Consumable
Drill pipe is a significant capital investment; it’s what keeps your bore going. And with any capital investment, how you maintain it determines how much value you get out of it.
The value of your drill pipe depends on how it's managed. Periodically, you should examine the state of your drill pipe. Determine what your drill pipe is actually worth and how much life it has left. Just because a rod still threads together and drills doesn’t mean it can or should keep working without inspection or maintenance.
Running drill pipe to failure is expensive. Outside of replacement costs, you’re looking at fishing the broken pipe out of the hole, lost operation time, and restarting the drill.
Can It Still Drill?
Still being able to make a hole with the pipe doesn’t automatically mean it’s a good one. Imagine halfway through your drilling project, your worn-out drill rods fail. Your drilling operation stops, downtime piles up, and repair costs add up. You could have avoided this if you'd spotted the signs of wear earlier. Implement regular maintenance and watch for signs of wear.
Get Your Drill Rods Inspected – Determine the Condition to Reduce Risk During the Drill
You can’t prevent wear and tear, but regular inspections can catch problems before failure. To protect your assets, act before problems arise, not after. You can identify thread damage, mushrooming of the steel ends (deformation, flattening, or curling), bent steel rods, excessive thread wear, and connection issues before they become major problems. Inspection data helps determine true remaining life.
There’s no set standard on how soon your drill pipe should be replaced. But planning and financing replacements make them much easier to manage. A drill string failure can leave tooling stuck underground, disrupt schedules, and create expensive recovery efforts. Planned maintenance costs far less than unplanned downtime. OBF Services can provide a list of third-party inspectors who can evaluate your drill pipe and help you stay aware of its condition.
If It’s Still Drilling, Here’s How to Maximize Return on Your Drill Pipe Investment
1. Rotate Your Drill Rods
Good maintenance practices help extend your drill pipe's service life. Proper maintenance starts with regular drill rod rotation. It’s easy to assume every pipe wears evenly, but that’s not true. The first rods in the string typically experience the greatest steering forces and wear, because they're being forced through all sorts of ground conditions - unbroken ground, rock cobble. They take the brunt of the force compared to the others. Rotating rods helps to distribute wear evenly across the entire inventory.
2. Recut Threads
If a thread galls, you may be tempted to throw it to the side and get rid of that rod. However, depending on how much space is left on the drill pipe, threads may be able to be cut. A lot of times failures come off more on twist-offs than on the threads. If you’re unsure whether recutting the threads is the right option, contact OBF Services for guidance.
3. Maintain Connections
Protect and maintain threaded connections to prevent accelerated wear, galling, and connection damage. Do this by cleaning threads, using proper lubrication, protecting threads, applying correct torque, and replacing worn components on time.
4. Check Your Wear Components
Finally, monitor related wear components by tracking their status. Sub savers, vise dies, rod wipers, and grease systems all influence drill rod longevity. Neglecting these supporting components can shorten the life of the entire drill string.
And If It Can’t Drill, Here’s What to Do
If your drill pipe can’t drill, or fails these maintenance checks, it’s time to invest in new drill pipe. OBF Services is proud to supply premium drill pipe for challenging horizontal directional drilling applications, including NOV’s Grant Prideco HDD™ drill pipe. GP HDD™ drill pipe provides superior technical performance and service life. Avoid issues such as low service life, poor tensile performance, low overpull safety margin, twist-off risk, buckling, and low tube-wear resistance.
Don’t Assume It’s Good Just Because “It Still Drills”
Drill pipe management is a financial decision, not a maintenance activity, because drill pipe is one of the most valuable assets in an HDD operation, not merely a consumable. Practices such as rod rotation, proper lubrication, connection care, and routine inspections maximize usable life and ROI. Waiting until a rod fails increases costs, downtime, and operational risk. Evaluate your current drill pipe management practices and build a lifecycle strategy that helps every rod deliver maximum value before replacement. If you need help evaluating the condition on your drill pipe, contact us at https://obf-services.com/.