Drilling advances

	Vol. 230 No.3
LES SKINNER, PE, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, LSKINNER@SBCGLOBAL.NET

Heroes of the oil patch

The news bombards us with tales of gloom and doom these days. We’re all going to starve! The economy of the entire world is going to fail! We have no hope! A look back provides needed perspective.

Here is a true story of a group of oilfield heroes—drillers—who worked in seemingly hopeless times in England during World War II. They never gave up hope, and the results showed it. Not too surprisingly, when the chips were down, and the situation dire, drillers stepped up to pull glorious victory from utter defeat.

The story goes back to a time when rationing was the norm. Steel was in very short supply. So were certain pieces of machinery, such as pumps, generators and trucks. Regardless, in 1942, Lloyd Noble and others met with officials from a British oil company to develop a recently discovered oil field onshore in the UK under the most strenuous of circumstances. Onshore!? Where could that be?

The field was in the dead center of England—in the Sherwood Forest. That’s right, Robin Hood territory, in Nottinghamshire near the town of Lincoln. The field had been discovered in 1939 by D’Arcy Exploration, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co., now known as British Petroleum. The reservoir was at about 2,300–2,500 ft, and the wells flowed only briefly before being put on rod pump.

The most important issue here was that this oil was available without using ocean-borne transportation. Submarines had reduced oil deliveries from the US to the UK to minimal volumes, due to the incredible number of tanker sinkings in the North Atlantic. Thousands of merchant marine sailors had perished trying to supply the UK with oil from US fields.

Rationing in both countries was imposed. Efforts to secure necessities such as rope, soap and dope were met with sympathy only. Getting drill pipe was like buying gold. Price was not the issue. There was simply nothing to buy. Manufacturers in both countries were struggling to manage deliveries of critical war materials to the military. The civilian sector would simply have to wait. All the while, the American and British governments insisted that civilian companies deliver more and more oil to the war effort.

In the midst of this, American drillers were asked to assemble four newbuild land rigs with the latest technology to drill 100 wells onshore in war-torn England. Noble Drilling purchased the rigs and ancillary equipment (including gin-pole trucks) to drill 100 wells over a 12-month contract term. Noble personnel, including Eugene P. Rosser, the drilling superintendent, and his assistant (head clerk), Don Walker, assembled a team of 42 drillers, roughnecks and truckers, and transported them to England on a troop carrier under combat conditions.

London was bombed for three years before the Americans arrived. Living conditions were barely tolerable, with the drillers and UK citizens on limited food rations. Most of the drillers lost 30–50 pounds during the contract term, most within the first few weeks. Nevertheless, they not only completed the contract successfully, but they trained a number of Anglo-Persian drillers to use modern drilling techniques. Most of those techniques led to the development of the North Atlantic, and they are still being used today.

The most amazing thing about this story is that the workers, the companies and the families of all the men (both in the US and in the UK) never revealed the field’s location. Had spies located this work, the oil field and all the surrounding areas would have been bombed into oblivion. The enemy never knew what was going on under the wings of their bombers.

The 44 Americans, along with their British counterparts, developed the field on 2½-acre spacing. The field was hidden beneath the canopy of the huge oak trees. The 87-ft derricks and all other equipment were painted a gentle green as camouflage, and never discovered.

In a period of 12 months, the Noble crews drilled 97 producing wells and another nine exploration wells/dry holes to deeper zones. Production from the field increased from 300 to 3,000 bopd. Over a million barrels of high-quality crude oil were delivered to the war effort at the same time that combat reduced oil supplies to the enemy to a mere trickle. Ultimately, World War II came down to a contest involving who had the oil and who didn’t. Talent, tactics and technology were secondary. Oil was the key to victory.

Important, however, were the drilling techniques introduced. Noble used modern, proven drilling techniques such as leaving a bit in the ground until it dulled. Previously the bit was pulled and replaced every 30 ft, a holdover from the cable tool drilling days when leaving a bit in the hole too long resulted in an undergauge hole. The driller now was allowed to leave the bit on bottom until it was worn out, a novel concept at that time.

Water was used to drill the upper hole sections. Mud was reserved for only those sections that needed additional weight to control pressure. Jackup derricks were used, so the old standard derricks did not have to be dismantled to be reassembled at the next wellsite. The list goes on.

The drilling crews were subjected to all the restrictions of war-time England. Food shortages were problematic, despite the Americans’ attempts to add to the menu by growing, hunting or getting their own food from US military bases. Lighting on the rig floor was limited to two 20-watt shaded light bulbs on opposite sides of the rig floor. The derrick had no lighting, and tripping pipe was a real challenge. Fuel was in short supply. The weather in Britain’s central Midlands was nothing like Oklahoma. It was tough duty, but crews stayed intact, kept their focus and drilled the wells.

In 1944, after lots of 12-hr tours, the Americans returned to the US to continue drilling, many for the next several decades. They have been honored as war heroes by those who know the story here in the US and in the UK. Incidentally, the average age of the entire crew was just under 24.

This is only one illustration of how drillers, in troubled times, step to the forefront to ensure that adequate oil is available. How much more could we honor men such as these? Let’s hope we can do as well during these troubled times.