Energy Issues

Vol. 232 No.8

I was in an antique shop not long ago and I came across an old “boomer.” Seldom referred to by its proper name (Lebus Load Binder), the tool was, and remains, a staple in the field. We used boomers mostly to secure loads on trucks, but also to move heavy things around—slowly. I haven’t been able to discover when the tool was invented, but I am guessing in the 1920s. That made me wonder how much of our technology is truly new. To find out, I headed to my bookshelves and pulled out Deep Well Drilling. The book, published by Gulf Publishing Company in 1931, was written by Walter H. Jeffery. Running about 800 pages, it covers drilling, completion and production operations and equipment. The narrative, photos and bound-in, velum diagrams (including complete schematics for constructing a wooden cable tool rig) speak volumes about how much has changed, and how much has not.

The title itself is intriguing. A deep well in 1931 was 10,000 ft. A fully equipped rotary rig to drill to that depth cost $135,000. That is all inclusive, from the 164-ft-high “Hi-Ten heavy steel reinforced derrick,” rated at 1.063 million lb, to the Cameron “steam operated” blowout preventer, to all nipples, ells, tees, flanges, etc. As the rig was steam powered, it also included three 85-hp National boilers and two 125-hp National boilers that fed Ajax drilling engines. Aside from the rig’s power, and the fact that it was not really designed to be portable, the setup is not much different from a modern rotary rig, except that the book specifies that a cable tool “outfit” is included with the rig. There is no explanation given for inclusion of cable tool capability, but my guess is that it was used for spudding in and drilling the top hole, in addition to being available for fishing. As the cable tool outfit included a walking beam, it would also be useful for subsequent workovers (remember, the derrick will likely remain in place) and as a pumping unit when the well is put on artificial lift. After a bit of thought, I concluded that the inclusion of cable tool capability was a pretty good idea.

Think we have advanced bit technology? Sure, but so did our predecessors. How about the Reed Wire Line Bit introduced on page 173? The bit’s cutter could be retrieved on wireline and a new one dropped down the drill pipe. The new cutter landed in a shoulder within the bit, which stopped its fall and caused it to open into a cutting position, making a round trip to change the bit unnecessary. Unbelievably, a core barrel could also be loaded into the bit the same way.

Think downhole motors are a recent development? They are not. A turbo-rotary bit was invented in Russia in 1926. The device consisted of a bit combined with a hydraulic turbine motor that was operated by the circulating mud. And what happened back then if you had to fish? They had overshots, spears, pipe-cutting tools, grabs, jars and most other tools with which we are familiar. In case the fish was off to the side of the hole, they also had the “knuckle,” a hinged device that could create a dogleg in the tool, allowing it to “reach over into the recess in the hole and make contact with the fish.” Circulation could be maintained through the tool even when opened to its limit.

But wait, there’s more. They also had automatic drillers back in 1931. Two of them, one made by Hild and the other by Ideal-Halliburton, used differential gears much like your car’s differential. The third automatic driller, made by General Electric, was more interesting. Its principle of operation was somewhat similar to that of the weight indicator. The dead end of the drilling line was connected to an auxiliary electric-drive hoist that, by taking up or letting out line, automatically controlled the weight on the bit. The dead line thus became another live line. Even better, the auxiliary hoist could be used on full hand control to pull pipe from the hole if the primary drawworks failed. Jeffery notes that the GE automatic driller was so accurate that it enabled the drilling of holes with very little deviation from true vertical.

In addition to fairly sophisticated drilling equipment, our predecessors had most of our current production technology. They had beam pumps, obviously, but they also had gas lift, both continuous and intermittent. They also had band pumping, a technology in which a central power station was fitted with an eccentric wheel with “pull rods” attached to the wheel at one end and the pumping units at the other end. As the eccentric wheel rotated, it pushed the rods back and forth to power the pumping units. Up to a dozen (and maybe more) pumping units could be run from one band-pumping station.

So perhaps we haven’t come as far as we think. Perhaps, but Jeffery makes no mention of fracturing, flooding, directional holes, 3D or 4D seismic (although he does address seismic), LWD, MWD, offshore operations, wells deeper than 10,000 ft and a whole lot more. Yes, they had a lot of modern technology back then, and we should be grateful for their lead, but we have left them in the dust.

Finally, I bet you have pondered where the term “spudding” came from. Jeffery has the answer. “When drilling in clayey or sticky strata the bit sometimes becomes clogged or mudded. If this should happen, raising and lowering the column of drillpipe a few times should clear it. The drillers call this operation ‘spudding.’”

And, in case you are wondering, I paid $20 for the boomer. I don’t know what I will do with it, but I am looking around for something heavy to move.