Back to work in the oil field again!

[tcmtech]

I finally got the medical clearances to go back to work again.
I had to do 10 days of restricted time. Five 8 hour days and five 10 hour days but now I can go to full 12 hour days now.

Basically what I do is suck 'production water' out of the holding tanks at the oil wells then transport it to a disposal well where it gets pumped down 5000 feet to the large salt water aquifer we have in the region. They call it production water since it comes from a producing oil well.
When the oil wells are drilled huge volumes of water, a few million gallons at times, gets forced down the well at high pressure to break up the rock formation that the oil is in to help get it flowing better. Once the well starts pumping there is a few month period where most of that water comes back along with the oil. Plus the oil formations have a fair amount of water trapped in them to start with that is always coming back out along with the oil.

Most wells here can produce between 1500 and 2500 barrels of oil and water mix a day. One barrel is 42 gallons. Starting out on a new well about half its production volume is water which will to eventually tapper back to around 5 -15 % of the total volume pumped if given enough time.

I am also trained to work on 'Vac trucks' (big super sucker vacuum pumps!) That suck the goo out of the pits when they are drilling or reworking a well. I have also have had a few days on the 'double bottom' trucks as well. They are the two tank type setups where the truck has one tank and then pulls a second tanker trailer behind it. Most days I haul around 90 - 110 barrels of water at a time depending on what type of water it is. Salt water is denser than fresh water so the trucks haul less at a time.

Our crude oil has a rather pleasant smell too. Its sort of a cross between McDonald's French fry oil and fresh gear lube.

Hows the pay you may wonder? I get paid $15 an hour to ride a bus to work and back every day and then around $22 - $28+ an hour depending on commissions for what I haul then time and a half on that after 40 hours, 90/10 health converge that actually covers everything that could realistically happen to me as well! Plus a bunch of other bonuses and other financial perks too. A normal take home paycheck every two weeks is around $1800 - $2800+!

SO if you have been wondering where I went the last two weeks this is it! And no the global warming troll didn't send me packing.

I will try and get some more pictures over the next few weeks as I jump around from place to place and get trained in on more new things as well. I dont have my camera with me every day so I am limited to when I take pictures of everything.

For now here are few pics of the main type of truck I drive and what I see all day every day. They are newer Kenworth trucks with gear pump type tanker trailers. Click on the pictures for a full sized view.

The first one is a brand new well that just went into service a few weeks ago.
The second is the 'production water' tank being drained with a four inch hose.
The third is the 500 GPM gear pump under the tanker.
The fourth is a closer view of the well head assembly.
The fifth is the truck I drove that day. The tanks behind the truck hold 400 barrels each. One is production water and the other four are crude oil.

 

[HiTech]

IWhen the oil wells are drilled huge volumes of water, a few million gallons at times, gets forced down the well at high pressure to break up the rock formation that the oil is in to help get it flowing better. Once the well starts pumping there is a few month period where most of that water comes back along with the oil. Plus the oil formations have a fair amount of water trapped in them to start with that is always coming back out along with the oil.

What I'm trying to understand is somewhere at the point of injection, there has to be an earth-seal that can withstand the huge pressures required to loosen rock formation further. We are talking large numbers here. Are you referring to the oil-shale deposits that use water pressure to break up shale layers further to recover oil?

 

[JimB]

TCM

Good to hear that you are back at work.
Thank you for the pictures, I like to see pictures of "the other guys world".


HiTech
It is general practice to cement the steel casing into the hole drilled into the ground, so making a good high pressure seal.
This is true for both water injection and production wells.

JimB

 

[tcmtech]

What I'm trying to understand is somewhere at the point of injection, there has to be an earth-seal that can withstand the huge pressures required to loosen rock formation further. We are talking large numbers here. Are you referring to the oil-shale deposits that use water pressure to break up shale layers further to recover oil?

I dont know the exact mechanics of it as of yet but around here the oil bearing formation is approximately two miles down. Most of the great plains is glacial overburden and compacted soils for nearly the top half mile or more in depth. As I understand it the weight of the surrounding earth itself keeps slowly squeezing in as the bore hole is drilled and once the casing is in place it provides a solid seal all the way down. At some points where there are larger water aquifers or loose aggregate formations they need to drill through they pump a cement grout into the well as it is being drilled so that creates a plug around itself so they do not contaminate the water tables or get too much water draining into the well while they are drilling.

Around here most of the drilling is done horizontally once they get to the oil formation. They go down two miles to the formation then go over for around two more miles. Its mainly why the new pump jacks they have now are nearly four times the size of the old ones from 30 years ago. Plus that two mile run of horizontal line is how they get such high flow rates now.

I ask lots of questions while I am standing around loading or unloading water from the trucks. I dont know or understand a lot of what they say but I do follow most of the concepts and principals though. The drill crew guys say they can drill down two miles and over two miles and have a 90% chance of putting the drill head into a 55 gallon drum sized target on the first try!

Also one well from start to finish presently costs around 2 - 4 million dollars to install and takes around 60 working days on average to get to the point of being capable of producing oil.
The long term goal now is to have one well on every section of land in this region in next number of years. This time the oil boom is expected to stay around for more than just a few years this time. We have an estimated one trillion barrels of oil under our region and present drilling technology and estimates on future technology advances strongly suggest that its going to be a viable source for at least 50 years or more with likely over a 50% recovery capability over the next 50 years as well.

Estimates are that around 500 billion barrels of oil can likely be recovered from my region over the next 50+ years and that sounds like a good thing to me!


Seriously if anyone is looking for high paying work we need workers here very badly in all professions. Just check your local job listings for oil field related recruiting agencies. Every major company here is advertising nation wide to try and find enough people to do the work we have available! Much of the work is in the support industries which is a wide and far encompassing range of jobs so not all of the work avialable here is just rig work or truck driving!

 

[Mikebits]

Seriously if anyone is looking for high paying work we need workers here very badly in all professions. Just check your local job listings for oil field related recruiting agencies. Every major company here is advertising nation wide to try and find enough people to do the work we have available! Much of the work is in the support industries which is a wide and far encompassing range of jobs so not all of the work avialable here is just rig work or truck driving!

That is tempting, I often think it would be nice to live in rural America. So noisy here in the city, and expensive too.

I would love a geology tech job, but even geo techs have a geo degree.

 

[tcmtech]

The local college in Minot has an excellent geology program. I had a few class's myself there a number of years ago and found them very enjoyable and of reasonable cost too!

Right now so many of the oil field companies are so desperate for workers even a grunt level geology tech job is pretty much guaranteed to anyone who applies for it!
One of my diving buddies does the geology work for the drilling records and what not and the company he worked for was training people on the job just to find enough basic level workers two years ago.
If you can pass a drug test, wash a rock, and type with more than two fingers your probably going to get hired or at least looked at with interest!

After all I was hired to drive a truck without a class A CDL by a company that two years ago would not look twice at anyone who did not already have a class A CDL and at least one year of documented full class A over the road experience.
Now my class B CDL and some years of class A farm related experience was considered good enough to make me worth hiring and training.

At this point most companies just require a pulse, a slightly warm body, a reasonably clean driving record and a clean drug test the day you sign on. Everything else experience wise is optional! Believe me, there are already some scary stupid people out there making big money that have no idea what they are doing but are still holding their jobs any way.

However housing is going to get to be a real pain in the next year or so though so those who get here sooner instead of later have a far better chance of getting a place to live at a more reasonable cost.

You will never know what you may find unless you take the initiative to just go and take a look.

I went looking for free food and handouts at a job fair and now, "I are a truck driver."

 

[Mikebits]

Sounds like the gold rush of the 19th century.

 

[Reloadron]

Good deal there tcmtech and glad you are back at it again. I really enjoyed the pictures you posted, interesting stuff. There is just something fascinating about oil wells. More pictures anytime!

Ron

 

[gabeNC]

Good stuff TCM. More pics please. When I was young, my grandfather had wells similar to this on his land in Oklahoma. Toward the end of the life of the well, it was pumping alot more water than oil. I think it's amazing that they can drill horizontal AFTER two miles of vertical.

 

[HiTech]

HiTech
It is general practice to cement the steel casing into the hole drilled into the ground, so making a good high pressure seal.
This is true for both water injection and production wells.

JimB

Ok then I would imagine we are talking a sizeable amount of cement to "cork" the well hole (so to speak) or it would pop open. Another thought that has crossed my mind over the years is: if oil is a fossil fuel, I would think that organic life had to be damn plenty and stacked thick on this planet to provide the necessary means for the vast deposits on this planet. And why or how then has it been deposited so deep underground? Gas and water are closer to the surface in most cases.

 

[JimB]

Ok then I would imagine we are talking a sizeable amount of cement to "cork" the well hole (so to speak) or it would pop open.

Yes.
For a simplistic example, consider a hole say 10" diameter and 5000ft long, now insert a 7" casing (pipe) and you have an annular space 7" x 10" x 5000ft, that is a volume of 1390cu ft of cement (if my calcs are ok) to completely fill the annular space between the casing and the rock.

The cement is injected at the bottom of the hole until it just flows out at the surface, a packer seals the "cement pipe" at the bottom of the bottom of the casing to prevent the cement flowing back up the inside of the casing during the injection process.
In the case of a subsea well, injecting the cement from the bottom of the hole has the advantage of displacing the water from the hole.

Note that my oil and gas experience is not in drilling and I stand to be corrected by someone who has experience in this area.

Another thought that has crossed my mind over the years is: if oil is a fossil fuel, I would think that organic life had to be damn plenty and stacked thick on this planet to provide the necessary means for the vast deposits on this planet. And why or how then has it been deposited so deep underground?

As with that other fossil fuel coal.
The deposits were layed down over periods of millions of years and many millions of years ago, and since then, other sedimentary rocks have been deposited over them. Plenty of time to build up nice thick layers of sandstone, limestone etc.

Gas and water are closer to the surface in most cases.

Most reservoirs have Oil, Gas and water in various proportions and at various depths.
Water can be a serious problem in gas wells depending on the temperature and pressure because hydrates can be formed.
Hydrates are an ice like substance which has the habit of blocking the production pipework.

 

[tcmtech]

This week I am on a "Vac Truck" sucking oil sludge out of the pits where they just finished drilling another new well last week and now the rig is off the site.
Most of what is in the plastic lined pits is salt water and oil sludge. It basically looks like a big swimming pool of oil and muck from the top. They start out as a roughly 100' by 200' by 10' deep pit and as we pump the water out a big dozer pushes the sides in until all thats left is a small hole a few feet deep.
The vac trucks have a large rotary vane type pump that can produce around 20" of Hg suction for loading or around 15 PSI discharge pressure while unloading.

The red fire hydrant like object is a brand new well head that stands about four feet high and 18 inch's in diameter. Under that is the well casing that is about 4 miles long on this well!
The new oil pumps are driven by a 75 hp motor that runs off a massive VFD unit so they can set the pumping rates from just over 1 stroke per minute to around 10 strokes per minute. All remotely controlled of course!

An interesting thing I was told about is that the oil fields here are very dynamic in how they flow. Apparently the tidal forces of the lunar cycles have drastic effects on the flow rates and pressures of the wells. Some wells will free flow at a few hundred PSI for part of the month then drop down and have to be pumped for another part and every well has a different flow rate and pressure change variation unique to itself! Some have wide variations others tend to stay more stable.
The one in the picture is free flowing at around 30 PSI at the time the picture was taken.

The first picture is the pit I was sucking water out of.
The second picture is is a new site before any equipment has been drought in.
The third picture is the vac truck I was driving this week.
The fourth picture is the motor specs plate on the pump.
The fifth picture is the new well head before anything has been attached to it.
The sixth picture is the free flowing pressure of one well.

 

[HiTech]

Quick! Better call BP to clean up the spill in that first photo!

 

[Mikebits]

Cool photo's. The rock looks highly rich with iron. Does the iron rich rock make drilling more difficult?

 

[nickelflippr]

Great Pics! Keep 'em coming.

The oil must be of a very high grade, you might expect that because of the heat involved at the 5000 ft well depth. Noticed in the first batch of pictures, the tank battery lacked what I would call a proper water separator tank. With a brief experience in shallow (1000 ft.) NE Kansas high viscosity oil (asphalt grade to put it bluntly), you had to heat the oil in a high column tank before sending it to the holding tanks.

 

[tcmtech]

The red rock we have here is Scoria rock. Its kind of a Naturally occurring low grade brick of sorts. It comes from ancient coal beds that burned underground millions of years ago where the remaining coal ash then mixed with the higher iron content clays and soils we have around here. A few million years later it becomes a similar constancy and hardness to that of a lower grade brick. Its very water resistant and makes a good bedding material for places that have high traffic and heavy loads. Its rather hard on tires though being it tends to break up with sharp edges.
I think its like drilling through sandstone. Its abrasive but not all that hard and it only forms in bands a few tens of feet thick which are mostly near the surface.

I am not sure what the exact grade of oil we have here. I do know it varies from a dark green and Grey to a sort of black/brown color as I have seen from well to well. It has the constancy of gear lube or heavy weight engine oil. It tends to smell like gear lube most of the time too. Most of its classified as sweet crude I think.
As far as I know the oil, water, and various gasses are separated passively right as it comes out of the ground and is naturally quite warm too.

The water tanks I deal with are usually warm to the touch even after sitting for a few days. One of the oil truck guys said the one well we where at had a tank temp of around 95 F even though it had not been unloaded for around a week.
Someone mentioned that the temperature right out of the ground can be over 110 F, if I am remembering it right. I know most of the above ground piping on the sites is always very warm to the touch and no active heating systems are present that I am aware of.

I still have lots of terminology and equipment names and functions to learn yet. Unfortunately a good deal of the truck drivers I work around don't seem to have much interest in learning or understanding what it is they work around every day. Drive a truck, do as little as possible, and complain about everything seems to be the common mentality.

 

[Mikebits]

I still have lots of terminology and equipment names and functions to learn yet. Unfortunately a good deal of the truck drivers I work around don't seem to have much interest in learning or understanding what it is they work around every day. Drive a truck, do as little as possible, and complain about everything seems to be the common mentality.

I think it is good that you strive to learn all you can and this will separate you from the masses and is the best way to get ahead. Sounds like your enjoying the work which is always a good thing.

 

[Sceadwian]

I still have lots of terminology and equipment names and functions to learn yet. Unfortunately a good deal of the truck drivers I work around don't seem to have much interest in learning or understanding what it is they work around every day. Drive a truck, do as little as possible, and complain about everything seems to be the common mentality.

Same mentality in a lot of of places in the U.S. unfortunately. I get that every day at work though on a different scale, I work at a old school machine shop, and 99% of the people just wanna get their eight hours and go home. Very little learning or progression, though I'm in a similar place to you, as I'm soaking up as much information as I can get from those willing to explain, and just about anyone will tell you everything they know if you just show an interest. For me it helps make the grunt work I do go faster since in what time I can eck out I'm gaining knowledge, least something good is going on besides the moving of materials =>

 

[nickelflippr]

I am not sure what the exact grade of oil we have here. I do know it varies from a dark green and Grey to a sort of black/brown color as I have seen from well to well. It has the constancy of gear lube or heavy weight engine oil. It tends to smell like gear lube most of the time too. Most of its classified as sweet crude I think.
As far as I know the oil, water, and various gasses are separated passively right as it comes out of the ground and is naturally quite warm too.

The water tanks I deal with are usually warm to the touch even after sitting for a few days. One of the oil truck guys said the one well we where at had a tank temp of around 95 F even though it had not been unloaded for around a week.
Someone mentioned that the temperature right out of the ground can be over 110 F, if I am remembering it right. I know most of the above ground piping on the sites is always very warm to the touch and no active heating systems are present that I am aware of.

Thanks for that, interesting info. I could see you were tapping the bottom of the first tank there, for the water. For the life of me, the old gray matter can't remember; That is, how do you tell the height of the water in the bottom of the tank? You can't gauge it (i.e use a steel tape), can you?

How do they lease mineral rights, and divvy up the landowner royalties, for two miles of horizontal well pipe (that is a truly amazing feat)? Are they large Federal or Tribal tracts/lands?

 

[tcmtech]

Basically thats a yes on the steel tape method! I just walk up the stairs at one end and drop a steel tape with a big brass weight on it through a lid on top of the tank. By doing a pre and post measurement and factoring in that each inch on these tanks equals 1.67 barrels I can get a accurate reading of how much was taken out.
Granted the tanks have a heavy build up of natural gas and hydrogen sulfate gas in them so I have to be careful when I open the lid at first but I wear a H2S sensor at all times when I am working.

If the H2S levels for a particular well are too high that one will be noted as a H2S well and we just guess at how much was taken out being it could be dangerous to be exposed to too high of level of H2S gas if the wind conditions where wrong while the tank lid was being opened.
H2S gas is the same rotten egg fart stink we all make some times! Its not immediately fatal but rather a powerful asphyxiate that can cause near immediate blackouts from oxygen deprivation.

Whenever I open a tank lid I always check the wind direction then take a deep breath and pop the lid open while stepping back and up wind. Its easy to see the fumes boil out of the tanks when you open them! The fumes are clear but have an easy to see optical distortion effect when looking through them that is similar to what you would see while looking through the hot flame of a big torch in broad daylight.

As far as mineral rights and who owns what or gets paid I have no idea how they handle that. The person who owns the land the well is on gets paid for the land usage but what happens from there for what is underground I dont know much about as of yet.

I do know my dad is working on getting all of our family properties mineral rights back into the family name and not divided up among 50+ strangers who probably dont even know they own a small percentage of it at this time.
We have had the oil company's seismic mapping crews on our land in the last year or two and since then whatever they told my dad gave him reason enough to want to put forth the effort and money to get all the mineral rights into our name alone! Plus the grid pattern they use for placing wells solidly puts at least one future well site on our family property as well.

I will try and get some more pictures tomorrow and next week of some more new stuff!
I never know what I will be doing or where I will be from day to day.