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Permalink Reply by Two Dogs, Pirate on June 19, 2010 at 10:24

There is a picture in a book that I have that shows a crater near El Dorado that is 600 feet wide and 100 feet deep. It happened quite often in the early days of drilling.

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Permalink Reply by Checkmateking on June 19, 2010 at 10:48

Are you talking about Early Louisiana and Arkansas Gas and Oil? Great book.

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Permalink Reply by Two Dogs, Pirate on June 19, 2010 at 10:51

Check thats the one, my daughter gave it to me for Christmas several years ago.

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Permalink Reply by Aubrey C. Sanders, Jr. on June 19, 2010 at 12:26

Yes, that was very frequent in the early days. I have never seen or heard of the book you mentioned. I must get a copy of that. Hint, hint Angela and Adrienne tomorrow is Fathers Day.

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Permalink Reply by Two Dogs, Pirate on June 19, 2010 at 16:38

Mr. Sanders the book is Early Louisiana And Arkansas Oil A Photographic History 1901-1946 By Kenny A. Franks and Paul F. Lambert, Texas A&M University Press.

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Permalink Reply by Jack B2 on June 20, 2010 at 3:36

My father-in-law took me to see it, know exactly where it,s at. It was the Gleason No. 1 (if my memory serves), off La 3008 (Dorcheat Rd.), and the rig still at the bottom somewhere. I understand it was insrtrumental in locating the Cotton Valley field which is still producing today.

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Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on June 20, 2010 at 7:32

What do we mean by "cratering?" Is this essentially like a "sinkhole" in reverse? Material gushing up the well bore keeps scouring out a larger and larger hole?

Or are we talking about something where the oil/gas coming out of the ground leaving an underground void and the ground collapses into the "cave" left behind causing a crater on the surface?

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Permalink Reply by Aubrey C. Sanders, Jr. on June 20, 2010 at 10:21

GoshDarn,

Thanks for your posting. It is a good place to start further discussion.

Uncontrolled flow may develop in open holes or cased holes. When uncontrolled flow of oil and gas occurs in an uncased well the well bore hole can greatly increase in diameter due to erosion of materials (soil & rock) which make up the sidewalls of the hole. In time sufficient materials are eroded away leaving unstable walls which will fall into the enlarged bore hole. As fluids and gas are removed from the formation the formation may consolidate due to removal of fluids from pore space. It is well documented that removal of fluids can cause further consolidation of sediments and cause subsidence and lowering of land surface elevation. Examples are in and around Houston, Tx where many casing failures are attributed to excessive pumping. In the Phoenix Az area subsidence of as much as 25 feet is documented due to excessive groundwater pumping in the past 100 years. Such subsidence creates earth fissures which rapidly erode and may extend for many miles.

In a cased drill hole I believe cratering might occur if there is an ineffective cement job allowing gas and oil flow upward outside the casing leaving voided as erosion occurs.

This may sound a bit far out to some. But, in my 30 years experience as an engineering geologist doing foundation core drilling and testing for dams I have seen stranger things. Having said that, I am not predicting that the Well from Hell will crater, but I do say it could.

I am not intimately familiar with the geologic formations in the Gulf. I did do seismic work in the area a long time ago in late 50's and early 60's. Currently I am involved with Jurassic formations in N. La.

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Permalink Reply by Aubrey C. Sanders, Jr. on June 21, 2010 at 7:35

GoshDarn:

I have lots to learn about the drilling and production end of this business. Most of my work has been in exploration. I am slowly learning the rest of business by spending as much time on drilling locations operated by the likes of Fina, XTO, Forest, etc. on wells where I have WI. Two older wells which I own and operate also provide me with a laboratory. I do have fun in my lab, even though it can be an expensive education.

Thanks to all for mentioning the book to me. I will be ordering a copy.

Today I recieved acknowledgement regarding one of ideas I submitted to BP and Horizon Deepwater Unified Command; It read, in part, as follows: "It has been determined that your idea falls into one of the following ART categories: Already Considered/Planned, Not Feasible, or Not Possible, and therefore will not be advanced for further evaluation." They claim to have reviewed over 80,000 submissions.

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Permalink Reply by Two Dogs, Pirate on June 21, 2010 at 8:10

Hey GD, remember the dude from Winnfield, that had the idea of the energy device, that traveled to DC in his truck to show it to President Obama but instead of visiting with the president he was thrown in jail for having a 22 rifle in his truck.

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Permalink Reply by Two Dogs, Pirate on June 20, 2010 at 8:48

Mac from what I have read the gas starts to surface outside of the well bore and becomes uncontrollable. The gas will start to come out of the ground from all over the place. It can send the drillstem rocketing into the air and swallow the whole drilling rig. I think that most of these cratering events took place before they learned how to cement a well. One of the stories talks about one blowing over 100 million a day into the air. They said that a plane flying over at 6000 feet was getting blasted by sand from the blow out. One witness said that the boiler was bobbing around in the crater like a boiling piece of stew meat in a pot.

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Permalink Reply by Aubrey C. Sanders, Jr. on June 21, 2010 at 7:15

Even more important I think was the development and use of engineered drilling muds.
They have indeed come a long way in all aspects of the business.

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