November 10, 2021
When Stark Drilling (Western Australia) was founded in 2017, industry veteran and Managing Director Courtney Henness knew which company he wanted to build Stark’s flagship drilling rig.
“Having previously used Schramm equipment at many drilling projects over the decades, it was a natural decision for me,” says Heness. “Schramm T450s are amazingly versatile, able to complete air-core and RC drilling, at various depths, and have minimal environmental impact.”
The T450 Series is loaded with the latest hydraulic systems, 30,000 lbs (13,608kg) of pullback, a 45 ° sliding angle mast (30k lattice or 40k tube), a deck mounted diesel engine, and truck or track-mounting capability. Well known for its flexible, reliable operation and improved spare parts availability, the T450 Series’ rugged top drive rotation and efficient pipe handling also offer high productivity on the job site and comes with the additional options of heavy winches, carousels and hands-free pipe handling.
Stark Drilling, which is 100% Australian owned and operated, conducts a variety of commodity drilling operations in some of Australia’s most remote and hostile environments. The company commenced its inaugural project in October 2017, at a 20,000m project at Wollogorang in the Northern Territory, using an Australian built T450. Today, the company specializes in directional RC and hole retrieval to reduce deviation issues in sampling.
Henness, who has over 28 years’ drilling industry experience, says, “Stark Drilling has a very strong focus of providing drilling solutions in both the exploration and mining sectors throughout regional Australia, specializing in remote location activities.”
That’s why he says he trusts Schramm drilling rigs: their mobility, reliability, quality design, safety, operation functionality and product support.
Like every Schramm rig, the Stark T450 was custom configured to meet the client’s needs—reverse circulation and air-core—and included a custom paint job selected by Starks to support a charitable foundation.
“We really are excited with our new Schramm T450,” says Henness. “The finished product really is something to behold with the blue color scheme, which reflects our passion for the Beyond Blue Foundation and mental health awareness in an industry where there can often be a multitude of challenges faced on a daily basis,” he said.
In addition to purpose-built configurations, custom paint jobs, rig service and maintenance, Schramm also offers an extensive range of engineered upgrades including automated pipe handling systems, electric over hydraulic hardware and software, hydraulic breakout systems and air control upgrade kits.
Schramm’s end-to-end customer support means rigs keep operating at optimum performance, and old rigs can be refurbished to operate even better than before.
