The Lake is down a bit. We sure could use a rain. 

Beautiful Lake Aquilla, I drink from this trough daily. 

Procrastinating predator perched on post in Peoria perhaps pondering prey.

The pipes in the bins in the foreground are drill stem, what are the pipes that are vertical. They are in three joints sections. The workers were lower them in the hole three joints at a time. They did that five or ten times while I was watching. Is that the casing they are installing or is it just more drill stem. They could fill many books, and they have, about what I don't know about the oil and gas business. Email and inform me, I am still an active student in the school of life. williethekidd@gmail.com


I got my answer from my new friend, Terrel Shields, he states the following.


Willie - They are pulling pipe, no casing, which is large and has thin walls and small collars (on pipe is called the tool joint.)

The pipe is pulled up through the V-Door, The smooth drum on the right or left of the large drum is used to wrap a rope around and is called a cathead, and it is used to pick up pipe from the bins (pipe baskets) and pull them up into the V-Door. The square pipe that turns is called the Kelly, it is turned by the kelly bushing which fits in the table which is spun from a gear box below where the pipe is going it. The metal shed with the writing on it is the upper dog house, there is a lower dog house below or sometimes, it is a water tank.

A rig that pulls 2 joints of pipe is a double stand, 3 joints is thribbles, I have seen rigs capable of 4 joints, but never seen one in action. Pipe is screwed together with tongs after using a spinning chain to seat the tapered threads. Lead tong throws the chain. And backup tong is usually the least experienced hand. The derrick hand handles the top of the pipe and maintains the mud system while drilling. The driller is boss and runs the brake. The mud pits are on the extreme right, mud is pumped down the center of the pipe and flows up the hole thru the blowout prevent (BOP) into a flow line which goes into the shale shaker. The shaker seperates the larger drilling cuttings from the mud by viberating. "Fines" in the mud settle in the bottom of the mud pits and have to be jetted occasionally. The geologist looks at the cuttings after washing and drying them. The "worm" hand on the rig gets the job of sample catcher unless a "mudlogging unit" is there and it has a full crew to catch samples. The samples caught by the night crew (morning tour -pronounced "tower") is usually pretty bad. Sample catching is about the least favorite job on a rig.

If the rig was in select parts of the Rockies, the Arkoma, etc. it might be drilling on air instead of mud. The flow line is called a blooie, air compressers and boosters replace the mud pumps, and the blooie is run out well into the reserve pit. A large pilot light is kept lit in case of gas. Once gas is hit, it has to be flared off until the well is over to prevent gas from building up and exploding.

Thought you'd like to know

www.roxnoil.com

Terrel Shields

roxnoil@earthlink.net

Hill County Rattlesnake!!!!! 

Santa's view of Northern Hill County.
Merry Christmas

 

Merry Christmas
Not all the pictures look like a million! 

A friend in the area informed me the following:

They were making a trip to change the bit that wore out when the picture was made. They were going back in the hole with the drill stem.
They were at 5100' this morning at about 10:00AM
Those bits are about $30,000 I am told.


Thanks to all that look and respond to this Blog. Without you I would be just an ill informed picture snapper. Please keep me going with good information and report any errors I have made.

williethekidd@gmail.com

The two Steinberger Rigs, 1 and 3 are in looking distance of each others. This one is on the Johnson East and the worker is look at the rig on the Ross Ranch. 

Steinberger Rig 3 on the Johnson East Permit. 

Chief is rocking and rolling north of Covington on the east side of SH171. 

They are drilling the Johnson East Permit today. 

The dozers are working on the Johnson Central Pad, you can see the Johnson East Pad in the background. Both of these sites are a little over a mile south of Johnson-Hill County line East of SH 171. 

This will be interesting to follow. Three wells on 128.7 acres, Pipes Lease, northwest Hill County. 

Starting to move in equipment at the Johnson East site. Chief is really staying busy in this area. 

It takes a lot of water to drill a gas well. 

Fill er up 

Patterson rig on the Mastin Ranch 

Steinberger Rig on the Ross Ranch

Adding stem. 

Kicking back on the derrick. 

 

 

 

Men at work. 

I went out looking for Christmas lights tonight. These are the lights I want on the other side of my place over 1500 feet away from my house. 

These dozers were working about a mile south of the Ross Ranch on the east side of SH171.