Meet AIS Survivex’s lead drilling and well control instructor, and avid collector of oilfield belt buckles, Dave Cormack.
Dave is a well-known face in the drilling industry, having worked operationally as part of the drilling crew or in a training capacity, on more than 30 drilling rigs, platforms and mobile offshore drilling units since the start of his career in 1983.
He has also run over 530 well control schools to both international well control training standards.
Dave moved into training in 1991, working in key training roles with Santa Fe Drilling, Reading & Bates Drilling, Transocean Drilling and KCA Deutag Drilling, where he latterly held a global remit to ensure the very highest training and development standards across its 8,000+ team.
After setting up his own training consultancy, Auriga Training, in 2009, Dave’s been involved with well control training on every continent on the planet – except the polar ones.
He served a term on the IWCF Board of Directors, conducting centre audits on their behalf and running the IWCF practical assessor training programme for several years. Dave was also a contributing author for the well control chapter of IADC’s Drilling Manual and has written his own book, “An introduction to well control calculations for drilling operations.”
He certainly knows his stuff!
In early 2022, Dave joined AIS Survivex, bringing his extensive expertise to our drilling training portfolio.
Dave is now responsible for delivering our IWCF drilling well control courses, which we run on a weekly basis either in Aberdeen or Newcastle.
Dave said:
“AIS Survivex has a fantastic reputation in the training arena and the company has invested heavily in well control training with ‘Well Control Training Centres of Excellence’ in both Aberdeen and Newcastle which use the very latest drilling simulator technology, including the iDrillSIM cloud-based simulator by market leader, Drilling Systems.
“Having worked in the drilling industry myself for almost forty years, I understand the sector inside out and am able to put myself in the delegates’ shoes to ensure we deliver highly engaging course content, which is specifically tailored to field requirements. It’s always really fulfilling to see delegates finally understand a topic that has given them trouble on previous well control courses and to know I’ve helped make this happen.
Our pass rates are testament to the high quality of our training but, most importantly, our excellent post course candidate feedback highlights our focus on teaching well control first and foremost to embed knowledge and understanding.”
IWCF Drilling & Well Control Academy
To help drilling personnel access training when they need it, AIS Survivex runs scheduled drilling well control courses every week of the year either in Aberdeen or in Newcastle.
