Frank is a widely known figure within the drilling industry, and has over 35 years experience in oilfield, water well, HDD, tunnelling, microtunnelling, auger boring and foundations drilling.

In 1999 he was named the North American Trenchless Technology person of the year, and he also sat on the NASTT Board of Directors from 2001–2005.

Given his wealth of knowledge and engaging presentation style, Frank spends much of his time delivering training to members of the industry, and conducts approximately 40 seminars each year.

Frank is passionate about the importance of ongoing education, particularly given the number of new recruits that have entered the industry in the last decade.

“The more training we can do the better it is for the industry in general.” However, he observes that “I don’t think we’ve been doing quite as much training as we did in the earlier days.”

In particular, Frank emphasised the importance of keeping engineers responsible for writing project specifications aware of the capabilities of key equipment.

“I think it’s very nice to see the engineers come out and learn about the industry that they are writing specifications for.”

At a recent Vermeer Maxi Rig Seminar, he spoke on drilling fluids, the interaction between fluids and soils, and recycling procedures.

Frank says that drilling fluids play an important role in the success of HDD projects. “It’s with the use of fluids that we have lubricity at the hole, reduce friction, stabilise the borehole. Then after the fluid has been injected the bentonite can turn into a grout like substance. Drilling fluid can also work as a coolant for the transmitters and provide soil stabilisation so we can maintain an open hole.”

Frank also spoke about the change he has witnessed over his years in the industry, due to improvements in technology and the manufacture of ever larger equipment.

“I feel sorry for the guys who are coming into the HDD industry today, as they have not witnessed the evolution of the equipment, especially the mixing equipment we had to work with,” he said.

“In the early 1990s, what we have today would have seemed like science fiction. In the early days, to mix one sack of bentonite, it would take up to half an hour. Today you are talking less than five minutes.”

Another advance in the technology has been automatic drill pipe loading.

“When I first got started with HDD, I’d go out to a jobsite to work with someone and they always seemed to be shorthanded, I always wound up hand racking the drill pipe. Now most drill rigs have automatic rod loaders.

Drill accuracy has also increased. “In the early days it was a sort of ‘poke and hope’, and now there is a lot more science involved.”

“It will be interesting to see if the equipment we have 15 years from now makes such advances as seen in the previous 15 years.”

Not only have improvements in technology advanced the industry as a whole, they have also contributed to the success of Baroid.

Frank says that the improvements in drilling fluid and locating systems are important to the respect the company enjoys, and also cites “the tooling improvements that we’ve seen in the previous 20 years” as an important achievement.

One of the other key changes has been the increasing size of rigs. “I remember when a mid-size rig used to be a 25,000 pound rig, and now it’s up around 100,000 pounds.

“The maxi rigs are just amazing. And that’s the way that the industry is going now, it’s to the larger and larger rigs.”

These machines can tackle increasingly complex drives with larger product lines over longer distances.

“I remember back in the early 1990s at the UCT show in Houston there was a panel discussion on ‘is the 10,000 ft bore feasible?’ and now it’s been done.”

The longest drive that Frank has ever been involved with was approximately 30 feet over one mile in south Texas.

One of the most interesting jobs was “island hopping in Venice, Italy.” The project involved the installation of electric lines to power tidal power gates.

Frank has worked in temperatures from minus 30 to over 50 degrees Celsius. He says that getting to travel and meet a diverse mix of people are some of the most enjoyable aspects of his job.

“It’s really amazing that a driller in Australia has the same concerns as a driller in Russia, who has the same concerns as a driller in Louisiana in the States.

“It’s interesting to see some of these guys at the international shows get together and start comparing notes. It’s funny – when you see a group of people from the rigs together. If you know that one of them is a locator, they are usually all locators. If you see a mud-mixing guy, they’re usually all mud mixing guys.

When questioned, Frank was optimistic about the future of the industry, despite the economic challenges of the past few years.

“HDD is coming into its maturity, and it’s more and more widely accepted as an installation process, and it’s a fairly green process. We can do it with only causing minor disruptions.”