Weigh clay, and mix with water and chemicals to make drilling mud, using portable mixers.

“Weigh clay, and mix with water and chemicals to make drilling mud, using portable mixers.” is a core task performed by Derrick Operators, Oil and Gas. Among the occupation's 15 rated tasks, workers place it 3rd by importance (#13 most important). About 80% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Measure physical characteristics of materials, products, or equipment. in Estimating the Quantifiable Characteristics of Products, Events, or Information
• Prepare mixtures or solutions. in Performing General Physical Activities

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.00. Automation potential label: T0.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Inspect derricks, or order their inspection, prior to being raised or lowered. · importance 4.5
• Inspect derricks for flaws, and clean and oil derricks to maintain proper working conditions. · importance 4.5
• Control the viscosity and weight of the drilling fluid. · importance 4.5
• Repair pumps, mud tanks, and related equipment. · importance 4.4
• Set and bolt crown blocks to posts at tops of derricks. · importance 4.4
• Listen to mud pumps and check regularly for vibration and other problems to ensure that rig pumps and drilling mud systems are working properly. · importance 4.4
• Start pumps that circulate mud through drill pipes and boreholes to cool drill bits and flush out drill cuttings. · importance 4.2
• Position and align derrick elements, using harnesses and platform climbing devices. · importance 4.2
• Supervise crew members, and provide assistance in training them. · importance 4.2
• Guide lengths of pipe into and out of elevators. · importance 4.2
• Prepare mud reports, and instruct crews about the handling of any chemical additives. · importance 4.1
• Clamp holding fixtures on ends of hoisting cables. · importance 4.0
• String cables through pulleys and blocks. · importance 4.0
• Steady pipes during connection to or disconnection from drill or casing strings. · importance 3.8

See all tasks on the Derrick Operators, Oil and Gas page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-9901,
  title  = {Weigh clay, and mix with water and chemicals to make drilling mud, using portable mixers.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-9901}
}