Earlier this week, no further than 30 miles from where I am writing this article, an excavation company working on a utility construction project had a trench collapse on two of their workers with one of those crew members losing their life.
Almost every well constructed, and virtually all drilled wells, use casing to support the hole and allow access to the producing horizon, be it oil, gas, water or most anything else under the ground.
The use of graphite in thermally-conductive grouting applications has exploded in recent years with more and more drillers abandoning the use of sand either completely or partially.
Well-intended rules surrounding groundwater sustainability are on the rise across the country, so what do they look like and how might they impact drillers?
Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) launched the Individual Well Program in April 2016 to provide well assessments and workshops funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The biggest difference between drilling fluids for vertical rotary mud drilling and horizontal directional drilling (HDD) applications is in the requirements for gel strength.