Cutting Cores and Mixing Mud
- Pipeline
- In Search Of Oil
- Other - In Search Of Oil
Author: Dick Maise
Released 25 March 2007
Geological Field Trip - Wadi Birk (Taken 7/69)
In excerpts from his letters to family beginning in 1958, Charles Richard Maise ("Dick") describes his role as a geologist in the Exploration Department for Aramco while working at various structure drill sites.
“I’ll have to admit that trying to explain just what it is that a geologist does is somewhat of a problem. If the persons can be put off with some sort of hokum about finding oil wells and gold mines, fine, but if they are really interested, it gets a little tougher to try to give an idea of the sort of things a geologist actually does, what he has to work with, the sort of person he has to be, and so on.
The difficulty is that compared with mathematicians, physicists, chemists, truck drivers, surveyors, and engineers of one sort or another, the geologist often finds himself doing his own surveying, cartography, truck driving, and so on. Besides knowing his rocks, he often has to have a pretty good feel for, or understanding of, the machinery and equipment that drills the holes, produces the electrical records, and the various possible methods of doing something so as to pick the best (option) under the prevailing conditions. And of course, be able to digest the raw data from the hole or group of holes or rock samples, draw conclusions, and spit it all out in a report that is short and to the point, and reasonably intelligible to those who are interested in reading it and have generally paid a pretty high price for it in terms of money, equipment, and time and materials consumed in gathering the data that went into the report.”
Desert Drilling Camp (Taken 1960)
February 11, 1959
“Last week I was at SD-1A (SD stands for Structure Drill), a site like I have here at SD-2A--just two trailers with a real small office with my bunk up over the desk, sort of Pullman style. Being in a new area and a new camp and being in charge of the thing sure was a whole lot all at once, but somehow or other I made it through the week. We were cutting cores in that hole all week, and I had to be out on the rig whenever one was coming out of the hole, so this meant that most every night I was up sometime in the wee small hours of the morning catching the core as it came out of the hole. And then I had to do the paper work on it and describe the rock, which all takes time, and had to keep up the routine sort of things that are always present, besides learning who and what the Arabs we had there were and could do or couldn’t do, so all in all I was pretty busy.
Oil Saturated Core - Top of Arab-D Reservoir (Taken 1969)
One night I had to spend down at another camp about 24 kilometers away to work on samples while they got ready to set casing in the hole. This was a fairly ticklish proposition since they had almost lost the hole three times before at about this same depth before they could get their casing set, and each time involved several days of very expensive operations after they got stuck. At the same time the rig at SD-1A was going, and about to cut another core, so I was up all night on the casing job, then dashed back to SD-1A in time to get them started on the coring job there. All in all, a busy couple days in one!
Then the next evening, just as I was sitting down to eat supper, the driller on the rig called in on the radio and said that one of the rig hands had hurt his hand badly and was coming over to get fixed up. Sure enough, he had cut his right hand and it was bleeding badly, so I had to play boy-first-aider and get him fixed up. He didn’t speak any English but one of the others that came over with him did speak a little, and with my vague Arabic, we figured out that one of the bits stored in a bin on the rig had toppled over onto him and cut him up. I got the bleeding stopped and bandaged up and sent him to his tent to lie down, then went over later in the evening to see how he was. He was weak but otherwise pretty much okay, but we sent him in on the plane to Dhahran the next day to get him stitched up."
Well Head - Christmas Tree - Production Test (Taken 1962)
“We’re drilling and cutting core here at this hole, too, now. I’ll have to get up sometime tonight to catch a short core, just a couple feet this time, and then figure out what to do next. The drillers do the work, but the geologist has to figure out what to do and tell them. Sounds simple enough, but you’ve got to pretty much guess right the first time, or it gets pretty expensive both in time and materials. I like it fine, though. I think I’ve learned a lot in the last couple weeks. It’s been a challenge, anyway."
“Yesterday was a good day, too! First thing in the morning one of the drillers fell and hurt his leg out on the rig, so we had to round up a plane to take him into Dhahran to get looked at. I don’t think he was hurt badly, just a sprain or strain perhaps, but he decided he should go to town to get looked at and I wasn't going to tell him he couldn’t go. You never know, it might just turn out to be something serious and as far as I’m concerned, I’d rather not take the chance, in spite of the fact that the guy is known to be something of a confirmed hypochondriac. Had to write up a safety record on it, too.
Wadi Birk Water Well (Taken 7/69)
Exploration has been pushing a safety program actively in recent months, because our safety record is the worst in the outfit. This is only natural, I think, because as an overall department, our work is the most hazardous--lots of heavy equipment, big iron, chemicals, heavy drums, flammable materials, ropes, cables, and semi-skilled or largely unskilled, at least partially illiterate laborers to manhandle the stuff. It’s really a wonder that more accidents don’t happen than do, considering all this stuff and the fact that it’s constantly moving from place to place over some of the most difficult terrain that it’s possible to move over at all.”
March 20, 1960 N 21-23-42 E 54-49-42 SD-2
“The two rigs are busy rigging up and we should get to drilling in another day or two. It’s always a long drawn-out job to set up a new rig, and on top of that everything is still scattered around on various trailers and the drillers have to go hunting for most everything they need."
Dick Diving in the Rub' al Khali to Collect Water Sample from Lake Formed by Leaking Water Well (Taken 4/76)
“I’ve been doing a bunch of mud tests to figure out what will be the best combination to use here and have come up with a recipe that looks like it will work: take 1 barrel fresh water, add 200 pounds of bentonite, mixing vigorously; add 7 barrels salt water and mix until smooth, then fold in carefully 1 pound of caustic, 1 pound of quebracho, and one-half pound of carboxymethylcelulose (CMC) per barrel of mixture. Sprinkle 6 pounds of lime per barrel into the mixture and mix violently. Makes about 400 individual gallons. For larger quantities, multiply quantities as needed. How about trying that out on your Mixmaster!”
August 14, 1962
“When I was up at the Qatif well this week I had a young Saudi summer student along with me. . . .I think he’s gotten the idea that petroleum engineers (promotional step for geologist) do nothing but drive all night, live on hamburgers and French fries eaten at weird hours, climb around the rig in the hot sun and generally get in everyone’s way.”