New oil rigs spur cheaper, quicker drilling amid supply glut

Houston

HAVE you ever seen an oil rig walk?

Some of the newest rigs can travel hundreds of yards to the next well under their own power, lurching along like 150-foot- tall robots on pneumatic legs that raise the equipment five inches at a time, nudging forward at about a foot per minute. While that sounds slow, it is faster and cheaper than dismantling a rig and trucking the parts to a new site nearby.