In the ’70s, after drilling and pushing tools for a few years, I had every roughneck’s dream. Every roughneck I ever met wants to be a fisherman. They see him sit in his truck, making pretty good money, and they trip pipe. That’s gotta be better, right? Sometimes, but not always.
Rig maintenance is an ongoing project for those of us who operate complicated mechanical devices in harsh conditions. Seldom do we get a day when the weather is the same as our living room, but we still need to make the job. Sometimes it is hotter’n west Texas and the radiator boils over before the corned beef hash on the manifold gets done.
The Bakken formation, mostly in North Dakota, is turning out to be one of the most prolific oil plays in the history of the United States. It was named after Henry Bakken of Tioga, N.D., in 1953.
Last time I came home for some time off, I got a strong sense of the differences in climate between North Dakota and Georgia. In North Dakota, they have four seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction. On the 31st of January, the wind chill was minus 51. That’s colder than an ex-wife. ... I’ve been in Siberia and never seen it that cold.
Once the site is prepared and the rig is on location, it gets interesting. While the rig is rigging up, additional supplies such as fuel, mud, chemicals, water, bits, mud motors and sometimes housing must be brought in. Also, additional service companies must be coordinated to arrive when needed. Mud engineers, mud loggers, cementers and directional drillers are part of most modern wells.
In normal mud rotary drilling, it is not unusual for solids content to approach 20 percent of returns during fast-hole drilling. This is good; it means fast penetration and thus, a quicker, more profitable hole. The trick is to get the solids out of the mud before it is returned to the hole.