I enjoyed my days of working in the oilfields of Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas back in the late ’70s and early 80’s.   Back when the oil boom was going full force before President Reagan brought it all to an end.   Working both in trucking and other various jobs, one of my favorite was working as a mud logger.  As a mud logger, you would spend 24 hours on and 24 hours off, working on-site at the drilling rig.  My job was to periodically take mud samples and looking through a microscope, draw out a log showing what percentage of what formation was being drilled through at any specific time.  The mud logger would also help determine at what point a section of gas would be found and at what depth . . . as well as testing the drill samples through a gas chromatograph and under a UV light and other various tasks.

As a mud logger, you would basically live out on the drilling rig through its completion, which could be months.  You dealt directly with the “driller,”  “tool pusher” and “company man.”   They would rely on the mud logger to keep them informed of the geological formations being drilled through, how much “gas” was being produced at any given time and most importantly . . . was there anything showing the possibility of a sudden “hit” coming up?    It was fun work . . . but there was danger involved as well . . . it was no game anybody was playing, and we always knew that.

Once, while working on a rig in Western Oklahoma bordering the Texas line, I began noticing more and more sandstone showing up.  According to drilling logs of previous rigs from the area and the depth that we were at . . . there should not be any sandstone.   Shortly after noticing it, the company man called me over the intercom and asked, “What are you showing coming up?”    I went out to meet him on the platform of the drilling rig and showed him and the others what I had . . . still some shale, but ever increasing sandstone.   We all knew what was coming . . .

Things started moving real fast, but a few minutes later the entire rig started shaking and seconds later . . . the earth began moving.   Somewhere in the distance we heard someone shouting, “RUN RUN RUN!”    One of the first things you learn when working on an oil rig, is that when you hear somebody shouting, “RUN” . . . you run.  So . . . we ran.

They had drilled into a large section of sandstone and, of course, gas . . . and it was coming up fast.   The guy who had shouted to run, was the worker over at the BOP (blowout preventer), who could see real quick that the BOP was not going to do its job on this one.  Everyone made it out safe and we were now about a half of a mile away and once things settled down a bit, I was able to take a photo of the experience with my Canon AE-1 and telephoto lens.  The blowout was so great, that it was left to burn itself out and the fire was so intense, that it eventually ended up even melting a large section of the rig and platform.  What happened, was one of the largest blowouts in Oklahoma history.

I still keep this photo hanging up on my wall, as well do several members of my family.  Why?  It’s always a reminder that our dependence on foreign oil is all done on purpose.  It tells me that our leaders of this country are more concerned about appeasing special interests groups than they are for bringing relief to millions of Americans.  It relates to me the fact that many of those who talk about finding ways to bring gas prices down and cutting our dependence on foreign oil, is just talk.   Talk means nothing when there is no action.  Furthermore, it is always a reminder that there are so many talkers out there who have no idea about the real world experiences of petroleum production.

I’m all for keeping our planet clean and doing whatever we can for its protection.   On the other hand, it has been here for 6 billion years and will be here billion of years more, long after mankind is gone.   Technology has come so far, that we can now put up a drilling rig, drill, cap it off, tear it down and remove it and you can barely tell that it has been there.  There are pumping units from the 1930’s out in Texas and Oklahoma that are still producing oil to this day.

So for all of those who have never even seen a drilling rig, except in pictures . . . for those who have never stood on a rig’s deck as the Earth shook because Mother Earth was about to release her fury . . . and for all of those who have never dipped their hands through drilling mud and experienced the sense of raw petroleum from the shale, lime and sandstone . . . you really want to bring gas prices down?   Are you really serious about cutting our dependence on foreign oil?

The answer is so simple and is right here on this page . . . DRILL.

© 2009, AskTheTrucker. All rights reserved.

: blowout, dependence, drill, drilling rig, foreign oil, gas prices, kansas, mud logger, oil rig, oilfield, oklahoma, petroleum production, pumping units, texas, trucking

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