In the 70's oilboom, the workers were called "oilfield trash" by onlookers.

An International Society was formed, and had belt buckles, hats, shirts, and
all sorts of things.

I have two belt buckles.

I worked in the Gulf of Mexico from 1974 to 1980, then again in 1993, and a
couple of hitches in Nigeria.

Are there any other alumni here, or people who worked oilfield who didn't
get to get a t shirt?

Steve

"SteveB" wrote in message
news:0CKme.1378$4p.91@fed1read03...
In the 70's oilboom, the workers were called "oilfield trash" by
onlookers.

An International Society was formed, and had belt buckles, hats, shirts,
and
all sorts of things.

I have two belt buckles.

I worked in the Gulf of Mexico from 1974 to 1980, then again in 1993, and
a
couple of hitches in Nigeria.

Are there any other alumni here, or people who worked oilfield who didn't
get to get a t shirt?

Steve



Indirectly, I guess. Helicopter mechanic in Morgan City, La. for a couple
years during that time. Also, Gambia, Qatar, Guyana supporting the Glomar
Sirte. I'll bet you flew on the some of the ships I kept up. No t-shirt.

Garrett Fulton

SteveB wrote:
In the 70's oilboom, the workers were called "oilfield trash" by onlookers.

An International Society was formed, and had belt buckles, hats, shirts, and
all sorts of things.

I have two belt buckles.

I worked in the Gulf of Mexico from 1974 to 1980, then again in 1993, and a
couple of hitches in Nigeria.

Are there any other alumni here, or people who worked oilfield who didn't
get to get a t shirt?

Steve


Well I did work the patch but never got a tee shirt . Really though
never got a bad comments from anyone other then survey crews . Sort of a
built in rivalry there . People generally thought I was making a fortune
, ha ha . When I started they were paying roughnecks $4.10 an hour .
Decent but sure no great fortune . They do a ton better today .
Ken Cutt

On Mon, 30 May 2005 13:22:22 -0700, "SteveB"
wrote:

In the 70's oilboom, the workers were called "oilfield trash" by onlookers.

An International Society was formed, and had belt buckles, hats, shirts, and
all sorts of things.

I have two belt buckles.

I worked in the Gulf of Mexico from 1974 to 1980, then again in 1993, and a
couple of hitches in Nigeria.

Are there any other alumni here, or people who worked oilfield who didn't
get to get a t shirt?

Steve

Gunner, raising his hand

Bendix Geophysical, Western Geophysical, Cactus Drilling, Poole Well
Services, General Production Services, Lund Production.

"Considering the events of recent years,
the world has a long way to go to regain
its credibility and reputation with the US."
unknown

Gunner, raising his hand

Bendix Geophysical, Western Geophysical, Cactus Drilling,
I moved rigs as a summer job when I was going to uni. Moved a few Catus
rigs in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Were you there?

Poole Well
Services, General Production Services, Lund Production.

"Considering the events of recent years,
the world has a long way to go to regain
its credibility and reputation with the US."
unknown

"gfulton" wrote

Indirectly, I guess. Helicopter mechanic in Morgan City, La. for a couple
years during that time. Also, Gambia, Qatar, Guyana supporting the Glomar
Sirte. I'll bet you flew on the some of the ships I kept up. No t-shirt.

Garrett Fulton



Air Logistics or PHI? I always liked to see the 212s coming, because you
were pretty sure to get a seat. And, like Radar on MASH, I could hear them
before anyone else.

Steve

"Ken Cutt" wrote


Well I did work the patch but never got a tee shirt . Really though never
got a bad comments from anyone other then survey crews . Sort of a built
in rivalry there . People generally thought I was making a fortune , ha ha
. When I started they were paying roughnecks $4.10 an hour . Decent but
sure no great fortune . They do a ton better today .
Ken Cutt

I started off at $3.50 an hour. At that time, all you had to do to go
offshore was have your bag packed. Today, with far less drilling, they can
pick and choose their workers, and yes, they pay better now.

Still a TOUGH job. Especially up on the drill floor.

Steve

"Tom Miller" wrote in message
...


Gunner, raising his hand

Bendix Geophysical, Western Geophysical, Cactus Drilling,
I moved rigs as a summer job when I was going to uni. Moved a few Catus
rigs in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Were you there?

Poole Well
Services, General Production Services, Lund Production.



Did you know "Blondie" Bellard with Cactus?

Steve

PS: I worked for Norman Jet systems, Global, and Gulf Coast Divers as a
diver, and for Reading and Bates as a crane operator.

Steve

On Tue, 31 May 2005 09:10:40 -0700, "SteveB"
wrote:


"Tom Miller" wrote in message
...


Gunner, raising his hand

Bendix Geophysical, Western Geophysical, Cactus Drilling,
I moved rigs as a summer job when I was going to uni. Moved a few Catus
rigs in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Were you there?

Poole Well
Services, General Production Services, Lund Production.



Did you know "Blondie" Bellard with Cactus?

Steve

Its been nearly 30 yrs since I rode a rotary table for Cactus. All I
remember is the rigs were red, they were out of El Dorado Arkansas.

I do remember the blowouts, the rig that I was working derrick on that
caught fire (blow out) while I was on the working board right after
shift change (thank god for the geronimo line) and beating the mud guy
to within an inch of his life for letting the water run in the pits
while he was off chasing pussy during his shift...

That sucker burned for 3 weeks.

I worked for Cactus in Michigan in the gas fields in the early mid
70s. Gaylord fields. If I saw a picture of the guy..I might
recognize him if he had ever been on my rig. Shrug.

Gunner



"Considering the events of recent years,
the world has a long way to go to regain
its credibility and reputation with the US."
unknown

"SteveB" wrote in message
news:UY%me.1446$4p.1136@fed1read03...

"gfulton" wrote

Indirectly, I guess. Helicopter mechanic in Morgan City, La. for a
couple
years during that time. Also, Gambia, Qatar, Guyana supporting the
Glomar
Sirte. I'll bet you flew on the some of the ships I kept up. No
t-shirt.

Garrett Fulton



Air Logistics or PHI? I always liked to see the 212s coming, because you
were pretty sure to get a seat. And, like Radar on MASH, I could hear
them
before anyone else.

Steve



PHI and the 212's were what I worked on. Good strong machine and a pleasure
to work on. No money in it, though.

Garrett

"SteveB" wrote in message
news:J00ne.1449$4p.809@fed1read03...
PS: I worked for Norman Jet systems, Global, and Gulf Coast Divers as a
diver, and for Reading and Bates as a crane operator.

Steve



Well, while we're on this subject, I'd like to be able to understand an
operation performed on a drilling rig. In '75, I was based onshore in
Guyana maintaing a Bell 212 that serviced the Glomar Sirte. The ship was
offshore about 90 miles and had drilled down to 14,000 ft., if I remember
this right. I was on the ship during some type of cementing operation that
was about to take place where, as far as I could understand it, they were
preparing to pump liquid cement down the hole under high pressure. It would
be forced out through the bottom of the hole, migrate up between the earth
and the drill pipe, harden and stabilize the pipe in the earth. I didn't
know beans about drilling wells, it wasn't my field, but that was the best I
could understand it. We had an old Irish drilling engineer named Jake
Murphy, who was a close friend, and was doing the computation for this
operation. The Shell Oil big boss was named Harry TenApple and was roundly
disliked by everyone. He really was a thoroughbred asshole as even I had
had a run in with him. Right before the cementing operation, Harry told
Jake he was taking over supervision of the deal. Jake went up on the
bridge, got a notepad, wrote up a statement absolving himself of any
responsibility for anything that was to occur subsequent to Harry taking
over. Took it to Harry, and made him sign it. Harry blustered and fumed,
but signed it. About an hour later, I heard that Harry had messed up the
amount of hardener that was supposed to go in the cement mixture and plugged
up the 14,000 ft. hole at the 10,000 ft. level. They later moved the ship
over a short distance and had to start a new hole. That was the way it was
all explained to me. Harry got canned off the job and Jake flew back with
us and got roaring drunk and celebrated in the hotel until the wee hours.
He was the sweetheart of the rodeo for letting Harry hang himself, I guess.
Didn't have to buy any drinks. Anyhow, have I got this cementing operation
correct? Is that the way it works? You have to be dead on the money with
the amount of hardener?

Garrett Fulton

"SteveB" wrote in message
news:000ne.1448$4p.417@fed1read03...

"Tom Miller" wrote in message
...


Gunner, raising his hand

Bendix Geophysical, Western Geophysical, Cactus Drilling,
I moved rigs as a summer job when I was going to uni. Moved a few Catus
rigs in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Were you there?

Poole Well
Services, General Production Services, Lund Production.



Did you know "Blondie" Bellard with Cactus?

Steve

Don't remember the name( It was thirty years ago) but we really didn't have
that much to do with the rig crew usually. We'd just rock up at 5:00 AM and
start tearing it out. With any luck, half the firts truck loads would be
gone by noon. If it was a short move we'd be back in a couple of hours for
another load. Didn't have much conversation time. The biggest customer was
Precision Drilling who mostly has a bunch of crapped out 2 standers in those
days. I believe that they have kicked on nicely now and a a real sharp
operation. Moving rigs was hard work then and I suspect its still hard work.
I can't see that there is any way to make a one inch winch line and tail
chain any lighter or more flexible.
Still, I enjoyed it at the time.

Tom Miller

"Garrett Fulton" wrote in message
...

"SteveB" wrote in message
news:UY%me.1446$4p.1136@fed1read03...

"gfulton" wrote

Indirectly, I guess. Helicopter mechanic in Morgan City, La. for a
couple
years during that time. Also, Gambia, Qatar, Guyana supporting the
Glomar
Sirte. I'll bet you flew on the some of the ships I kept up. No
t-shirt.

Garrett Fulton



Air Logistics or PHI? I always liked to see the 212s coming, because you
were pretty sure to get a seat. And, like Radar on MASH, I could hear
them
before anyone else.

Steve



PHI and the 212's were what I worked on. Good strong machine and a
pleasure
to work on. No money in it, though.

Garrett



I probably flew on ships you serviced. Thank you very much for the good
work.

Steve

Gunner wrote:

On Mon, 30 May 2005 13:22:22 -0700, "SteveB"
wrote:


In the 70's oilboom, the workers were called "oilfield trash" by onlookers.

An International Society was formed, and had belt buckles, hats, shirts, and
all sorts of things.

I have two belt buckles.

I worked in the Gulf of Mexico from 1974 to 1980, then again in 1993, and a
couple of hitches in Nigeria.

Are there any other alumni here, or people who worked oilfield who didn't
get to get a t shirt?

Steve


Gunner, raising his hand

Bendix Geophysical, Western Geophysical, Cactus Drilling, Poole Well
Services, General Production Services, Lund Production.

"Considering the events of recent years,
the world has a long way to go to regain
its credibility and reputation with the US."
unknown
What - no Doodlebugs ? :-) Hope I spelled that right - the window decal is around
here somewhere. Not a former member but knew them and some others that knew better.

Martin

Martin

--
Martin Eastburn
@ home at Lion's Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
NRA LOH, NRA Life
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

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"Garrett Fulton" wrote in message
...

"SteveB" wrote in message
news:J00ne.1449$4p.809@fed1read03...
PS: I worked for Norman Jet systems, Global, and Gulf Coast Divers as a
diver, and for Reading and Bates as a crane operator.

Steve



Well, while we're on this subject, I'd like to be able to understand an
operation performed on a drilling rig. In '75, I was based onshore in
Guyana maintaing a Bell 212 that serviced the Glomar Sirte. The ship was
offshore about 90 miles and had drilled down to 14,000 ft., if I remember
this right. I was on the ship during some type of cementing operation
that
was about to take place where, as far as I could understand it, they were
preparing to pump liquid cement down the hole under high pressure. It
would
be forced out through the bottom of the hole, migrate up between the earth
and the drill pipe, harden and stabilize the pipe in the earth. I didn't
know beans about drilling wells, it wasn't my field, but that was the best
I
could understand it. We had an old Irish drilling engineer named Jake
Murphy, who was a close friend, and was doing the computation for this
operation. The Shell Oil big boss was named Harry TenApple and was
roundly
disliked by everyone. He really was a thoroughbred asshole as even I had
had a run in with him. Right before the cementing operation, Harry told
Jake he was taking over supervision of the deal. Jake went up on the
bridge, got a notepad, wrote up a statement absolving himself of any
responsibility for anything that was to occur subsequent to Harry taking
over. Took it to Harry, and made him sign it. Harry blustered and fumed,
but signed it. About an hour later, I heard that Harry had messed up the
amount of hardener that was supposed to go in the cement mixture and
plugged
up the 14,000 ft. hole at the 10,000 ft. level. They later moved the
ship
over a short distance and had to start a new hole. That was the way it
was
all explained to me. Harry got canned off the job and Jake flew back with
us and got roaring drunk and celebrated in the hotel until the wee hours.
He was the sweetheart of the rodeo for letting Harry hang himself, I
guess.
Didn't have to buy any drinks. Anyhow, have I got this cementing
operation
correct? Is that the way it works? You have to be dead on the money with
the amount of hardener?

Garrett Fulton



Yep. That's about right as I remember. I didn't have anything to do with
calculating the hardener, so don't know about that. The drilling engineer
used to come over and look at the calliper log to determine how much cement
to run though. He'd just glance down the log and select a volume. Must have
had divine assistance cause I sure couldn't have determined it from that.
One point though, Its actually casing that they stabilize with cement. The
drill pipe is out of the hole standing in the derrick. They case the hole
with a larger diameter casing and cement it in. They then use a smaller bit
to drill from the bottom of the casing to total depth. On some of the deep
hole there would be three layers of casing between the formation & the drill
pipe.

On Tue, 31 May 2005 23:14:46 -0500, "lionslair at consolidated dot
net" "lionslair at consolidated dot net" wrote:

Gunner wrote:

On Mon, 30 May 2005 13:22:22 -0700, "SteveB"
wrote:


In the 70's oilboom, the workers were called "oilfield trash" by onlookers.

An International Society was formed, and had belt buckles, hats, shirts, and
all sorts of things.

I have two belt buckles.

I worked in the Gulf of Mexico from 1974 to 1980, then again in 1993, and a
couple of hitches in Nigeria.

Are there any other alumni here, or people who worked oilfield who didn't
get to get a t shirt?

Steve


Gunner, raising his hand

Bendix Geophysical, Western Geophysical, Cactus Drilling, Poole Well
Services, General Production Services, Lund Production.

"Considering the events of recent years,
the world has a long way to go to regain
its credibility and reputation with the US."
unknown
What - no Doodlebugs ? :-) Hope I spelled that right - the window decal is around
here somewhere. Not a former member but knew them and some others that knew better.

Martin

Martin


That was the time I spent working in 20 odd states and several
countries "doodlebugging" on seismograph crews..Bendix and Western
Geophysical. I ran a shot hole rig. Did some shooting, some
observing, some jug hustling, even ran a tractor rig with a modified
ditchwitch on the back to plant primacord underground in places we
couldnt get a drill rig into. I liked the drilling down in the
Brownsville area..we got to drill with air. Beat the hell out of
standing over a mud pit in -50F weather outside of Sydney North Dakota
and trying to keep from freezing to the ground between drill sections
changes.

Gunner

"Considering the events of recent years,
the world has a long way to go to regain
its credibility and reputation with the US."
unknown

"Tom Miller" wrote in message
...
Yep. That's about right as I remember. I didn't have anything to do
with
calculating the hardener, so don't know about that. The drilling engineer
used to come over and look at the calliper log to determine how much
cement
to run though. He'd just glance down the log and select a volume. Must
have
had divine assistance cause I sure couldn't have determined it from that.
One point though, Its actually casing that they stabilize with cement. The
drill pipe is out of the hole standing in the derrick. They case the hole
with a larger diameter casing and cement it in. They then use a smaller
bit
to drill from the bottom of the casing to total depth. On some of the deep
hole there would be three layers of casing between the formation & the
drill
pipe.



Casing. Right. Should have known that. That's what it's called in my well
out back too.

Garrett

Gunner wrote:

That was the time I spent working in 20 odd states and several
countries "doodlebugging" on seismograph crews..Bendix and Western
Geophysical. I ran a shot hole rig.

Gunner,

Can you fill me in on how a hole is profiled using a radioactive source?
My wife and her sister are convinced that their father died (eventually)
of radiation poisoning caused by an accident at a well. The story, as
I heard it, was that he (working for Wellex/Halliburton in the 50's) was
on a crew shooting a well. The drill hit a gas pocket and drill, pipe,
and radioactive source were shot into the air. The container holding the
radioactive source ruptured mid-air and covered the crew in a white
powder. The crews' exposure badges were lost by Wellex. The guys on the
crew were transferred to different areas of the country, and all died
young from old age (the girls' father died at 47 fighting kidney, liver,
and heart failure).

I there any possibility that this could have happened? How hot is the
radiation source?

Or have the girls whipped up a conspiracy theory?

Kevin Gallimore

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axolotl wrote:
Gunner wrote:

That was the time I spent working in 20 odd states and several
countries "doodlebugging" on seismograph crews..Bendix and Western
Geophysical. I ran a shot hole rig.


Gunner,

Can you fill me in on how a hole is profiled using a radioactive source?
My wife and her sister are convinced that their father died (eventually)
of radiation poisoning caused by an accident at a well. The story, as I
heard it, was that he (working for Wellex/Halliburton in the 50's) was
on a crew shooting a well. The drill hit a gas pocket and drill, pipe,
and radioactive source were shot into the air. The container holding the
radioactive source ruptured mid-air and covered the crew in a white
powder. The crews' exposure badges were lost by Wellex. The guys on the
crew were transferred to different areas of the country, and all died
young from old age (the girls' father died at 47 fighting kidney, liver,
and heart failure).

I there any possibility that this could have happened? How hot is the
radiation source?

Or have the girls whipped up a conspiracy theory?

I'm not Gunner, but I hung around the industry
a little bit.

I always thought that radioactive profiling
was done with a wireline after the drill
string was pulled. So it seems unlikely that
the tool could have opened a gas pocket.

It also seems unlikely that there would be
enough source material to "cover the crew
with white powder" and unlikely that it
would break open.

Can you fill me in on how a hole is profiled using a radioactive source?
My wife and her sister are convinced that their father died (eventually)
of radiation poisoning caused by an accident at a well. The story, as
I heard it, was that he (working for Wellex/Halliburton in the 50's) was
on a crew shooting a well. The drill hit a gas pocket and drill, pipe,
and radioactive source were shot into the air. The container holding the
radioactive source ruptured mid-air and covered the crew in a white
powder. The crews' exposure badges were lost by Wellex. The guys on the
crew were transferred to different areas of the country, and all died
young from old age (the girls' father died at 47 fighting kidney, liver,
and heart failure).

I there any possibility that this could have happened? How hot is the
radiation source?

Or have the girls whipped up a conspiracy theory?

Kevin Gallimore


I worked for Schlumberger much later (late 60"s early 70"s) so I suspect
that the sources were less powerful by that time as the sensor technology
had improved considerably by then. The most common radioactive survey when I
worked for them ,measured the density of the formation by bombarding it with
gamma rays from a cobalt 60 source. ( about 1 Curie if I remember
correctly). The amount of radiation reflected back to the tool was measured
and gave a measurement of the bulk density of the formation. If you knew the
type of formation (sandstone or limestone were the only ones of interest as
that is usually the only type you find oil or gas in) then you knew the
density of the pure rock and could calculate the porosity of the formation.
From resistivity surveys. you could tell weather the pore spaces were filled
with water or oil or gas.

Shooting a well is also called perforating. The well is cased with steel
casing which is cemented into the hole from top to bottom. To allow the oil
to flow into the hole, explosive shaped charges are located opposite the
production zone and fired electrically from the surface. These blow holes
about 12 mm in diameter through the pipe & cement and into the formation
about a metre deep.

I don't know if Wellex used some other technology in those days, but they
were looked down on buy the Schlumberger engineers as a "poor cousin".
Shclumberger was the acknowledged leader in the field. They did huge
amounts of research, built all their own equipment in house,and never
patented anything. They believed that they could stay 2 years ahead of their
competitors and didn't give out any information. I had to sign all sorts of
confidentiality agreements when I went to work for them.

It seams kind of unlikely that they would have a radioactive source downhole
while perforating as the sensors were really sensitive to shock. The
Schlumberger sources were about 20 mm in diameter and maybe 100 mm long.
They were a stainless steel tube with a Cobalt wire in them that was the
actual source. I suspect that you could put them in a shotgun and shoot them
at a wall without causing a leak.

On the other hand, I heard rumours that a long time ago,(1950')somebody had
found an earlier type of source on a
lease in northern Alberta. They used to take the source out of the truck and
place it in a roped off area on a corner of the lease. Some cat skinner
found it and used it as a track pin punch and ruptured it. The source
material was a powder in the case and contaminated himself and a big area.
It was all supposed to have been hushed up. I don't know how true it was but
it was one of those "oilpatch myths" that circulated.

Schlumberger crews were chopped and changed and moved all over the country
so the movement of the crew probably didn't have any sinister connotations.

Tom knows his stuff - SLB stuff - I worked with some on some early IC's - they were
thinking about using Bipolar IC's downhole. :-) The shaped charge was a cool concept.

Martin

Tom Miller wrote:

Can you fill me in on how a hole is profiled using a radioactive source?
My wife and her sister are convinced that their father died (eventually)
of radiation poisoning caused by an accident at a well. The story, as
I heard it, was that he (working for Wellex/Halliburton in the 50's) was
on a crew shooting a well. The drill hit a gas pocket and drill, pipe,
and radioactive source were shot into the air. The container holding the
radioactive source ruptured mid-air and covered the crew in a white
powder. The crews' exposure badges were lost by Wellex. The guys on the
crew were transferred to different areas of the country, and all died
young from old age (the girls' father died at 47 fighting kidney, liver,
and heart failure).

I there any possibility that this could have happened? How hot is the
radiation source?

Or have the girls whipped up a conspiracy theory?

Kevin Gallimore



I worked for Schlumberger much later (late 60"s early 70"s) so I suspect
that the sources were less powerful by that time as the sensor technology
had improved considerably by then. The most common radioactive survey when I
worked for them ,measured the density of the formation by bombarding it with
gamma rays from a cobalt 60 source. ( about 1 Curie if I remember
correctly). The amount of radiation reflected back to the tool was measured
and gave a measurement of the bulk density of the formation. If you knew the
type of formation (sandstone or limestone were the only ones of interest as
that is usually the only type you find oil or gas in) then you knew the
density of the pure rock and could calculate the porosity of the formation.
From resistivity surveys. you could tell weather the pore spaces were filled
with water or oil or gas.

Shooting a well is also called perforating. The well is cased with steel
casing which is cemented into the hole from top to bottom. To allow the oil
to flow into the hole, explosive shaped charges are located opposite the
production zone and fired electrically from the surface. These blow holes
about 12 mm in diameter through the pipe & cement and into the formation
about a metre deep.

I don't know if Wellex used some other technology in those days, but they
were looked down on buy the Schlumberger engineers as a "poor cousin".
Shclumberger was the acknowledged leader in the field. They did huge
amounts of research, built all their own equipment in house,and never
patented anything. They believed that they could stay 2 years ahead of their
competitors and didn't give out any information. I had to sign all sorts of
confidentiality agreements when I went to work for them.

It seams kind of unlikely that they would have a radioactive source downhole
while perforating as the sensors were really sensitive to shock. The
Schlumberger sources were about 20 mm in diameter and maybe 100 mm long.
They were a stainless steel tube with a Cobalt wire in them that was the
actual source. I suspect that you could put them in a shotgun and shoot them
at a wall without causing a leak.

On the other hand, I heard rumours that a long time ago,(1950')somebody had
found an earlier type of source on a
lease in northern Alberta. They used to take the source out of the truck and
place it in a roped off area on a corner of the lease. Some cat skinner
found it and used it as a track pin punch and ruptured it. The source
material was a powder in the case and contaminated himself and a big area.
It was all supposed to have been hushed up. I don't know how true it was but
it was one of those "oilpatch myths" that circulated.

Schlumberger crews were chopped and changed and moved all over the country
so the movement of the crew probably didn't have any sinister connotations.




--
Martin Eastburn
@ home at Lion's Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
NRA LOH, NRA Life
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

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----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

"lionslair at consolidated dot net" "lionslair at consolidated dot net"
wrote in message ...
Tom knows his stuff - SLB stuff - I worked with some on some early IC's -
they were
thinking about using Bipolar IC's downhole. :-) The shaped charge was a
cool concept.


Ya, they impressed hell out of me. I saw some being test fired in the
research labs in Huston. They had an ex-navy gunbarrel about 1 foot ID. It
was set on end into the floor so that only the breach stuck out. An overhead
crane lifted and replaced the breach and the target with the charge
attached. The whole shebang was lowered about 30 feet to the bottom of the
barrel. The breach was replaced & locked and the charge was fired
electrically. There was hardly any noise. Sounded like someone had dropped a
sledge hammer on the floor. The exercise was done again in reverse and the
target set down for examination. They used a core of 3% porosity limestone
as a target. When I was there after it was taken out the barrel, hot wax was
poured into the perforation, then it was split lengthwise to see how deep it
went and how big the hole was. I seem to recall that the perforation was
about 12 mm(1/2") dia at the top and tapered off to nothing at about 30
inches. We used to have guns that shot 4 of these charges per foot so 50
feet of gun made a LOT of holes.

Sorry If you find this boring

Tom

On Wed, 01 Jun 2005 19:19:03 -0400, axolotl
wrote:

Gunner wrote:

That was the time I spent working in 20 odd states and several
countries "doodlebugging" on seismograph crews..Bendix and Western
Geophysical. I ran a shot hole rig.

Gunner,

Can you fill me in on how a hole is profiled using a radioactive source?
My wife and her sister are convinced that their father died (eventually)
of radiation poisoning caused by an accident at a well. The story, as
I heard it, was that he (working for Wellex/Halliburton in the 50's) was
on a crew shooting a well. The drill hit a gas pocket and drill, pipe,
and radioactive source were shot into the air. The container holding the
radioactive source ruptured mid-air and covered the crew in a white
powder. The crews' exposure badges were lost by Wellex. The guys on the
crew were transferred to different areas of the country, and all died
young from old age (the girls' father died at 47 fighting kidney, liver,
and heart failure).

I there any possibility that this could have happened? How hot is the
radiation source?

Or have the girls whipped up a conspiracy theory?

Kevin Gallimore

Id have to say that at least a good portion of that story are
bull****. As best as I know..radioactive logging is only done by
lowering a source into a well and reading the bounced back radiation
from detectors sheilded from the source. Like shining a flashlight at
th walls of a tunnel. Every material will absorb more or less of the
radiation "beam".

Other forms of logging include reading the natural radioactivity of
the subformations.
http://www.greatgeophysics.com/logginginfo.html


So the drill string is unlikely to have been in the hole. And if there
was a gas pocket that came up, or a blow out even with the drill
string in the hole..that container is the least of their problems..as
having several thousand feet of heavy heavy pipe, mud and water coming
out of the hole straight up....is not condusive to standing around for
very long. Think of it as steel toothpaste...it flys upwards, bends
and then starts kinking, bending and falling back down on the the
drilling floor, the rig itself and the crew.

Some of the radioactives that are used are pretty nasty stuff though.

Based on what I know of the roughnecks of yore..dying at 47 was not
all that unlikely..they lived hard, played hard..and died hard.

On the gripping hand..there are lots of radioactives used in the
pipeline industry for X-ray photographs of pipe weldments. Some of
those can be pretty gnarly.
Cesium-137 being one of them.

Gunner



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"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire.
Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us)
off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give
them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the **** out of you
for torturing the cat." Gunner

Tom Miller wrote:

"lionslair at consolidated dot net" "lionslair at consolidated dot net"
wrote in message ...

Tom knows his stuff - SLB stuff - I worked with some on some early IC's -

they were

thinking about using Bipolar IC's downhole. :-) The shaped charge was a

cool concept.


Ya, they impressed hell out of me. I saw some being test fired in the
research labs in Huston. They had an ex-navy gunbarrel about 1 foot ID. It
was set on end into the floor so that only the breach stuck out. An overhead
crane lifted and replaced the breach and the target with the charge
attached. The whole shebang was lowered about 30 feet to the bottom of the
barrel. The breach was replaced & locked and the charge was fired
electrically. There was hardly any noise. Sounded like someone had dropped a
sledge hammer on the floor. The exercise was done again in reverse and the
target set down for examination. They used a core of 3% porosity limestone
as a target. When I was there after it was taken out the barrel, hot wax was
poured into the perforation, then it was split lengthwise to see how deep it
went and how big the hole was. I seem to recall that the perforation was
about 12 mm(1/2") dia at the top and tapered off to nothing at about 30
inches. We used to have guns that shot 4 of these charges per foot so 50
feet of gun made a LOT of holes.

Sorry If you find this boring

Tom


Not me - I have a minor in Gulf regional strata - 35 years ago... .
Taught by a long time 'shooter'. It was interesting and I still have one of my early
notebooks.

Somewhere around here, I have a document and some pictures - a little press stuff.
Maybe I'll post it if found and interest continues.

Just think - 30" and starting through a thick steel tube. Now that is neat when
thinking it is deep and under pressure.

Martin

--
Martin Eastburn
@ home at Lion's Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
NRA LOH, NRA Life
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

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Dangerous business in those days. Any roughneck that had been in the job for
a couple of years and still had all his fingers was suspected of being a
poofter.




Based on what I know of the roughnecks of yore..dying at 47 was not
all that unlikely..they lived hard, played hard..and died hard.

On the gripping hand..there are lots of radioactives used in the
pipeline industry for X-ray photographs of pipe weldments. Some of
those can be pretty gnarly.
Cesium-137 being one of them.

Gunner

On Wed, 01 Jun 2005 22:03:02 -0500, "lionslair at consolidated dot
net" "lionslair at consolidated dot net" wrote:

Tom knows his stuff - SLB stuff - I worked with some on some early IC's - they were
thinking about using Bipolar IC's downhole. :-) The shaped charge was a cool concept.

Martin

Most of the perforating in my neck of the woods is the perforating
gun..where a load of det cord blows X number of ball bearings out of
bays on the perforating gun. The engineers pick the number, spacing
and size of the balls and the shooter sets it up.

We fired one with a single ball once, 4" from the face of a well used
16lb sledge hammer. Put a perfect 1" dent in the face of the sledge
hammer. I dont recall i f the balls are hardened steel, tungsten or
what.

Gunner


Tom Miller wrote:

Can you fill me in on how a hole is profiled using a radioactive source?
My wife and her sister are convinced that their father died (eventually)
of radiation poisoning caused by an accident at a well. The story, as
I heard it, was that he (working for Wellex/Halliburton in the 50's) was
on a crew shooting a well. The drill hit a gas pocket and drill, pipe,
and radioactive source were shot into the air. The container holding the
radioactive source ruptured mid-air and covered the crew in a white
powder. The crews' exposure badges were lost by Wellex. The guys on the
crew were transferred to different areas of the country, and all died
young from old age (the girls' father died at 47 fighting kidney, liver,
and heart failure).

I there any possibility that this could have happened? How hot is the
radiation source?

Or have the girls whipped up a conspiracy theory?

Kevin Gallimore



I worked for Schlumberger much later (late 60"s early 70"s) so I suspect
that the sources were less powerful by that time as the sensor technology
had improved considerably by then. The most common radioactive survey when I
worked for them ,measured the density of the formation by bombarding it with
gamma rays from a cobalt 60 source. ( about 1 Curie if I remember
correctly). The amount of radiation reflected back to the tool was measured
and gave a measurement of the bulk density of the formation. If you knew the
type of formation (sandstone or limestone were the only ones of interest as
that is usually the only type you find oil or gas in) then you knew the
density of the pure rock and could calculate the porosity of the formation.
From resistivity surveys. you could tell weather the pore spaces were filled
with water or oil or gas.

Shooting a well is also called perforating. The well is cased with steel
casing which is cemented into the hole from top to bottom. To allow the oil
to flow into the hole, explosive shaped charges are located opposite the
production zone and fired electrically from the surface. These blow holes
about 12 mm in diameter through the pipe & cement and into the formation
about a metre deep.

I don't know if Wellex used some other technology in those days, but they
were looked down on buy the Schlumberger engineers as a "poor cousin".
Shclumberger was the acknowledged leader in the field. They did huge
amounts of research, built all their own equipment in house,and never
patented anything. They believed that they could stay 2 years ahead of their
competitors and didn't give out any information. I had to sign all sorts of
confidentiality agreements when I went to work for them.

It seams kind of unlikely that they would have a radioactive source downhole
while perforating as the sensors were really sensitive to shock. The
Schlumberger sources were about 20 mm in diameter and maybe 100 mm long.
They were a stainless steel tube with a Cobalt wire in them that was the
actual source. I suspect that you could put them in a shotgun and shoot them
at a wall without causing a leak.

On the other hand, I heard rumours that a long time ago,(1950')somebody had
found an earlier type of source on a
lease in northern Alberta. They used to take the source out of the truck and
place it in a roped off area on a corner of the lease. Some cat skinner
found it and used it as a track pin punch and ruptured it. The source
material was a powder in the case and contaminated himself and a big area.
It was all supposed to have been hushed up. I don't know how true it was but
it was one of those "oilpatch myths" that circulated.

Schlumberger crews were chopped and changed and moved all over the country
so the movement of the crew probably didn't have any sinister connotations.



"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire.
Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us)
off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give
them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the **** out of you
for torturing the cat." Gunner

The shaped charge was a
cool concept.


We used them to blow jacket legs for platform removal. They were circular,
had a hinge, and a clasp. We jetted around the jacket leg below the mud
line, then attatched the charge. They surely cut steel cleanly. And killed
a lof of fish that then were eaten by bigger fish and sharks. Quite a jet
of water coming out topside, too.

In the drilling department, no one was allowed to be on the decks when they
had the perforaters out and were loading them. More than once, they went
off ahead of schedule.

Steve

Tom Miller wrote:

Dangerous business in those days. Any roughneck that had been in the job for
a couple of years and still had all his fingers was suspected of being a
poofter.




Based on what I know of the roughnecks of yore..dying at 47 was not
all that unlikely..they lived hard, played hard..and died hard.

On the gripping hand..there are lots of radioactives used in the
pipeline industry for X-ray photographs of pipe weldments. Some of
those can be pretty gnarly.
Cesium-137 being one of them.

Gunner





Yep.

The doodlebugs I was talking about - the decal I have - was the First business unit
of TI - the 'semiconductor' company. Last I heard they are still (?still?) based in Houston.

I personly knew Victor G. (among others) and knew that TI was approached - but wouldn't sell.
Even though they were very small unit then it wasn't for sell. I suspect It was a statement
for an honorable death by retirements of the division. Never got to talk to Victor
after that on the subject, but now he is with RIG or retired (I hope for him).

When in the field, I got to drive the suit types around - since I was a semi-suit myself.
It was strange driving a VP or P from airport to meeting. These men were Giants in the field
but put pants on like we do. And the chit-chat was from planning on the weekend, loosing luggage
off the plane or taking heck for yet another un-planned trip while on a trip from the little lady.

Unique group of men and way of lives.

Martin

--
Martin Eastburn
@ home at Lion's Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
NRA LOH, NRA Life
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

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I didn't work on rigs but I did haul a lot of oilfield stuff into and
out of the oil patch from 1974 to 1982. I was an O/O leased to
H.J.Jeffries Truck Lines out of Oklahoma City. It was a great
experience. I just wish I would have kept better notes about some of
the characters I met and the stories I heard. It would be great
material for a bestselling novel.
Dennis

"SteveB" wrote in message
news:0CKme.1378$4p.91@fed1read03...
In the 70's oilboom, the workers were called "oilfield trash" by
onlookers.

An International Society was formed, and had belt buckles, hats, shirts,
and all sorts of things.

I have two belt buckles.

I worked in the Gulf of Mexico from 1974 to 1980, then again in 1993, and
a couple of hitches in Nigeria.

Are there any other alumni here, or people who worked oilfield who didn't
get to get a t shirt?

Steve


Almost: went "legit" back in the '60s.

Second Generation: Dad was an Engineer with Schlumberger from '46 'till he
died in '59 and I worked in their Houston Headquarters from '65 - '68.

I was working there when they created "Schlumberger Limited" and renamed
their original operation "Schlumberger Well Services".

"RAM^3" wrote in message
...
"SteveB" wrote in message
news:0CKme.1378$4p.91@fed1read03...
In the 70's oilboom, the workers were called "oilfield trash" by
onlookers.

An International Society was formed, and had belt buckles, hats, shirts,
and all sorts of things.

I have two belt buckles.

I worked in the Gulf of Mexico from 1974 to 1980, then again in 1993,
and
a couple of hitches in Nigeria.

Are there any other alumni here, or people who worked oilfield who
didn't
get to get a t shirt?

Steve


Almost: went "legit" back in the '60s.

Second Generation: Dad was an Engineer with Schlumberger from '46 'till he
died in '59 and I worked in their Houston Headquarters from '65 - '68.

I was working there when they created "Schlumberger Limited" and renamed
their original operation "Schlumberger Well Services".


They had a reputation of being a fantastic company to work for in those
days. They were good to work for in my day(early 70"s), but the old hands
used to tell stories about how well the Schlumberger family used to treat
them. They always went first class!

Tom

"Tom Miller" wrote in message
...

"RAM^3" wrote in message
...
"SteveB" wrote in message
news:0CKme.1378$4p.91@fed1read03...
In the 70's oilboom, the workers were called "oilfield trash" by
onlookers.

An International Society was formed, and had belt buckles, hats,
shirts,
and all sorts of things.

I have two belt buckles.

I worked in the Gulf of Mexico from 1974 to 1980, then again in 1993,
and
a couple of hitches in Nigeria.

Are there any other alumni here, or people who worked oilfield who
didn't
get to get a t shirt?

Steve


Almost: went "legit" back in the '60s.

Second Generation: Dad was an Engineer with Schlumberger from '46 'till
he
died in '59 and I worked in their Houston Headquarters from '65 - '68.

I was working there when they created "Schlumberger Limited" and renamed
their original operation "Schlumberger Well Services".


They had a reputation of being a fantastic company to work for in those
days. They were good to work for in my day(early 70"s), but the old hands
used to tell stories about how well the Schlumberger family used to treat
them. They always went first class!

Tom



You can believe the oldtimers' stories. Pierre and Marcel were definitely on
the "good guy" list although the kids were much more status-conscious.

FWIW, I was, probably, the only kid that ever wanted his room painted
"Schlumberger Blue" [with ~3" of white just below the white ceiling].

It's *still* my favorite color.

--
"Sanity is *vastly* overrated - and rarely useful!"

"RAM^3" wrote in message
...
"Tom Miller" wrote in message
...

"RAM^3" wrote in message
...
"SteveB" wrote in message
news:0CKme.1378$4p.91@fed1read03...
In the 70's oilboom, the workers were called "oilfield trash" by
onlookers.

An International Society was formed, and had belt buckles, hats,
shirts,
and all sorts of things.

I have two belt buckles.

I worked in the Gulf of Mexico from 1974 to 1980, then again in 1993,
and
a couple of hitches in Nigeria.

Are there any other alumni here, or people who worked oilfield who
didn't
get to get a t shirt?

Steve


Almost: went "legit" back in the '60s.

Second Generation: Dad was an Engineer with Schlumberger from '46 'till
he
died in '59 and I worked in their Houston Headquarters from '65 - '68.

I was working there when they created "Schlumberger Limited" and
renamed
their original operation "Schlumberger Well Services".


They had a reputation of being a fantastic company to work for in those
days. They were good to work for in my day(early 70"s), but the old
hands
used to tell stories about how well the Schlumberger family used to
treat
them. They always went first class!

Tom



You can believe the oldtimers' stories. Pierre and Marcel were definitely
on
the "good guy" list although the kids were much more status-conscious.

FWIW, I was, probably, the only kid that ever wanted his room painted
"Schlumberger Blue" [with ~3" of white just below the white ceiling].

It's *still* my favorite color.

--
"Sanity is *vastly* overrated - and rarely useful!"

You could recognize the vehicles anywhere at half a mile distance

"Tom Miller" wrote in message
...

"RAM^3" wrote in message
...
"Tom Miller" wrote in message
...

"RAM^3" wrote in message
...
"SteveB" wrote in message
news:0CKme.1378$4p.91@fed1read03...
In the 70's oilboom, the workers were called "oilfield trash" by
onlookers.

An International Society was formed, and had belt buckles, hats,
shirts,
and all sorts of things.

I have two belt buckles.

I worked in the Gulf of Mexico from 1974 to 1980, then again in
1993,
and
a couple of hitches in Nigeria.

Are there any other alumni here, or people who worked oilfield who
didn't
get to get a t shirt?

Steve


Almost: went "legit" back in the '60s.

Second Generation: Dad was an Engineer with Schlumberger from '46
'till
he
died in '59 and I worked in their Houston Headquarters from '65 - '68.

I was working there when they created "Schlumberger Limited" and
renamed
their original operation "Schlumberger Well Services".


They had a reputation of being a fantastic company to work for in those
days. They were good to work for in my day(early 70"s), but the old
hands
used to tell stories about how well the Schlumberger family used to
treat
them. They always went first class!

Tom



You can believe the oldtimers' stories. Pierre and Marcel were definitely
on
the "good guy" list although the kids were much more status-conscious.

FWIW, I was, probably, the only kid that ever wanted his room painted
"Schlumberger Blue" [with ~3" of white just below the white ceiling].

It's *still* my favorite color.

--
"Sanity is *vastly* overrated - and rarely useful!"

You could recognize the vehicles anywhere at half a mile distance



Yep! Dark Blue with a White roof.

That started in ~1955. Before that, until '52, they didn't issue company
cars and, '52- '54, there was no color scheme.

In '53 and '53 they issued Pontiacs and, in '54, they issued Mercurys. Dad
always swore that the Oil Companies should have *given* those Mercuries away
with the "catch" that the recipient buy all their gas from the donor: they
were real gas hogs that used a lot of oil, too!

In '55 he got a White/Blue Chevy and, in '57, he got his last car before he
died - a White/Blue '57 Ford equipped with the latest Optional Safety
Accessory: 3" wide seat belts with Aluminum Cam-Action buckles. [See? *Some*
metal content here!G]