It's been a long time coming. Perhaps the crude is only sweeter for waiting.
I like to tell people "I have a master's degree in coloring". Not exactly true. But as a one-man geology shop selling oil well drilling deals, I do take pride in my aesthetically balanced, color-rich maps and cross sections; it just seems that colored patterns meet the eye so much more easily, allowing the mind of the client to readily gain comfort with complex geology 2 miles below the mesquite brush roots of West Texas. Resplendent with color and sensuous contour lines defining the subsurface target, North Sean was a handsome oil prospect. We had this deal sold some years ago, it was deemed the best of the nine prospects my partner and I had to offer. We negotiated terms, but as the price of steel used for drilling and completing the well rose (commensurate with oil prices I might add), he backed out saying it was now too expensive to drill to 10,200 feet.
Another company took the deal, but then got busy with another massive drilling project an let this one languish until our lease was about to expire. We renewed the lease under the Rocker b Ranch, but could not get anyone to take the deal, despite rigorous science and good economics, not to mention beutiful maps.
With our mineral lease days away from expiring for the second time, we could see no sales on the horizon to come to our rescue. Out in Midland, my partner was about to drop the Sean Prospect as lost, what more could be done? But when buying a smoothie, he though of one final possible buyer. Mr. S liked the deal, wanted a big piece and said he was sure he could find a few more buyers at the prospect expo coming up in Houston. He was sure right. After years and years of no interest, once Mr. S got involved, that Sean Prospect was 100% sold in a matter of days. We even had people calling and begging to get a piece of this deal they had heard about. Where were they the last 3 years? Strange business.
We got the rig moved in, and immediately started off drilling a crooked hole - not good. The driller thinks they hit a shallow fault that caused the bit to deviate. Eventually, they had to come way back up the hole and start all over again. Time is money.
I had my bags packed and once the bit was about 1,000 feet from our objective, I headed west on a 6 hour drive to "sit the well". Once on location, I am watching the time it takes to drill a foot of rock, and I am looking over the lithology of the "cuttings" coming up from the bottom of the hole to estimate where the bit is in the geologic column of various stratified rock formations. Drill time and rock type identified under a microscope offer clues as to what type and age of rock we are currently drilling. Sometimes it is not so easy to know how close one is to the pay zone, even when comparing drill rates and cutting lithology to nearby wells. The science has been done, now when it really counts it mostly comes down to a nebulous knack, an inexact art. This latter stage of impressions, hunches and weighted comparisons is what I truly love about being an exploration geologist. And probably explains why I am not a hard numbers equation engineer type; I can live with ambiguity. Nothing quickens the senses more than anticipating drilling into a pay zone with just a few more turns of the drill bit. Did I correctly map it? Have I thought of everything? Or have we just spent a million bucks for a deep hole in the ground? Of course I always think we will find oil - but admittedly, at times I have been wrong. Duster. Bummer.
Based on where I have mapped the rock formations 10,000 feet below, we get to the expected depth of the pay zone, yet the bit still grinds slowly on down at about 5-6 minutes per foot, no sign of a "drilling break" where the porous rock (hopefully trapping oil in the pore space) would drill faster, at around 1-2 minutes per foot. The intensity increases as all eyes of the investors are on the geolograph to look for our first "quick foot". Every minute that passes, the pressure grows, dry hole or oil well; no way to know if you've done your geology and geophysics right until the drill bit gets there. Theories, maps, 3D seismic and high probability of success are all just dandy - but at the end of the day if you can't poke it with a sharp stick, you ain't got nothin'.
I am not too worried that my prediction of porosity did not come in exactly to the foot after drilling a 2 mile hole, but I am thinking I sure need to see some evidence pretty soon.
Like a seance, we all gather with intense emotions awaiting the tell tale sign from the nether regions of the far below the earth, places that have not seen the light of day since the Silurian Period, 300 million years ago. Oh mysterious earth, is there oil beneath our feet? What is the answer, be it yes or nay? Then it comes - the bit cuts into dolomite porosity, the sounds from the rig floor indicates the drill bit is cutting faster than normal, the computer monitor inside the trailer shows we have suddenly gone from 6 min/ft to 2 min/ft. It's breaking! This is it! Come on baby!
I make sure this is not a false alarm. I wait to see if we have at least 8 feet of continuous break. It looks pretty good. And according to our drilling plan, we only want to drill into the top of the pay zone rather than risk drilling into any water below the oil, which would hamper the recovery of oil. We stop drilling and wait 40 minutes for the last cutting samples to be circulated up off the bottom of the hole and out onto the shale shaker, where they are collected and examined. Good news. The samples fluoresce under UV light, a sign of oil, and the rocks have nice looking porosity as would be expected.
The next step is to let the formation flow whatever fluids it has into the drill stem under controlled conditions and this will tell us if we have natural gas, oil, water or any combination of the three, and what kind of pressures exist within the reservoir.
The tester comes out and rigs up his equipment for the DST (Drill Stem Test); the definitive answer as to what we have drill into. With the valves, chokes, tank and personnel in place we open up the formation to atmospheric conditions at the surface and let her flow. After spending a million dollars, the first indications of the results come from nothing more sophisticated than a $1.25 rubber hose submerged in a 5 gallon bucket of water. As fluid enters the drill pipe it forces the air in the pipe up and out of the well with pressure and through the little rubber hose on the rig floor. Almost immediately, the air comes rushing out of the hose and begins blowing bubbles in the water bucket with strong action. I am encouraged.
Then after 15 minutes we get the odor of natural gas. I am very encouraged.
At the end of the DST we have bright yellow, high quality oil flowing out of the well, through the pipes and into the test tank with a resounding roar. I am more than very encouraged.
It is the equivalent of a gusher.
Today I am feeling smarter than the rocks. It is a good feeling!
I like to tell people "I have a master's degree in coloring". Not exactly true. But as a one-man geology shop selling oil well drilling deals, I do take pride in my aesthetically balanced, color-rich maps and cross sections; it just seems that colored patterns meet the eye so much more easily, allowing the mind of the client to readily gain comfort with complex geology 2 miles below the mesquite brush roots of West Texas. Resplendent with color and sensuous contour lines defining the subsurface target, North Sean was a handsome oil prospect. We had this deal sold some years ago, it was deemed the best of the nine prospects my partner and I had to offer. We negotiated terms, but as the price of steel used for drilling and completing the well rose (commensurate with oil prices I might add), he backed out saying it was now too expensive to drill to 10,200 feet.
Another company took the deal, but then got busy with another massive drilling project an let this one languish until our lease was about to expire. We renewed the lease under the Rocker b Ranch, but could not get anyone to take the deal, despite rigorous science and good economics, not to mention beutiful maps.
With our mineral lease days away from expiring for the second time, we could see no sales on the horizon to come to our rescue. Out in Midland, my partner was about to drop the Sean Prospect as lost, what more could be done? But when buying a smoothie, he though of one final possible buyer. Mr. S liked the deal, wanted a big piece and said he was sure he could find a few more buyers at the prospect expo coming up in Houston. He was sure right. After years and years of no interest, once Mr. S got involved, that Sean Prospect was 100% sold in a matter of days. We even had people calling and begging to get a piece of this deal they had heard about. Where were they the last 3 years? Strange business.
We got the rig moved in, and immediately started off drilling a crooked hole - not good. The driller thinks they hit a shallow fault that caused the bit to deviate. Eventually, they had to come way back up the hole and start all over again. Time is money.
 |
| Drilling North Sean Prospect Are You Smarter than the Rocks? |
I had my bags packed and once the bit was about 1,000 feet from our objective, I headed west on a 6 hour drive to "sit the well". Once on location, I am watching the time it takes to drill a foot of rock, and I am looking over the lithology of the "cuttings" coming up from the bottom of the hole to estimate where the bit is in the geologic column of various stratified rock formations. Drill time and rock type identified under a microscope offer clues as to what type and age of rock we are currently drilling. Sometimes it is not so easy to know how close one is to the pay zone, even when comparing drill rates and cutting lithology to nearby wells. The science has been done, now when it really counts it mostly comes down to a nebulous knack, an inexact art. This latter stage of impressions, hunches and weighted comparisons is what I truly love about being an exploration geologist. And probably explains why I am not a hard numbers equation engineer type; I can live with ambiguity. Nothing quickens the senses more than anticipating drilling into a pay zone with just a few more turns of the drill bit. Did I correctly map it? Have I thought of everything? Or have we just spent a million bucks for a deep hole in the ground? Of course I always think we will find oil - but admittedly, at times I have been wrong. Duster. Bummer.
Based on where I have mapped the rock formations 10,000 feet below, we get to the expected depth of the pay zone, yet the bit still grinds slowly on down at about 5-6 minutes per foot, no sign of a "drilling break" where the porous rock (hopefully trapping oil in the pore space) would drill faster, at around 1-2 minutes per foot. The intensity increases as all eyes of the investors are on the geolograph to look for our first "quick foot". Every minute that passes, the pressure grows, dry hole or oil well; no way to know if you've done your geology and geophysics right until the drill bit gets there. Theories, maps, 3D seismic and high probability of success are all just dandy - but at the end of the day if you can't poke it with a sharp stick, you ain't got nothin'.
I am not too worried that my prediction of porosity did not come in exactly to the foot after drilling a 2 mile hole, but I am thinking I sure need to see some evidence pretty soon.
 |
| Work on the rig goes on 24 Hours a Day |
I make sure this is not a false alarm. I wait to see if we have at least 8 feet of continuous break. It looks pretty good. And according to our drilling plan, we only want to drill into the top of the pay zone rather than risk drilling into any water below the oil, which would hamper the recovery of oil. We stop drilling and wait 40 minutes for the last cutting samples to be circulated up off the bottom of the hole and out onto the shale shaker, where they are collected and examined. Good news. The samples fluoresce under UV light, a sign of oil, and the rocks have nice looking porosity as would be expected.
The next step is to let the formation flow whatever fluids it has into the drill stem under controlled conditions and this will tell us if we have natural gas, oil, water or any combination of the three, and what kind of pressures exist within the reservoir.
 |
| Drilling for Oil in West Texas |
Then after 15 minutes we get the odor of natural gas. I am very encouraged.
At the end of the DST we have bright yellow, high quality oil flowing out of the well, through the pipes and into the test tank with a resounding roar. I am more than very encouraged.
It is the equivalent of a gusher.
Today I am feeling smarter than the rocks. It is a good feeling!
 |
| A Good Day in the Oil Patch |
 |
| DST Tank with Oil flowing from test |
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