Any ISOT members here?

I worked for Schlumberger much later (late 60"s early 70"s) so I suspect that the sources were less powerful by that time as the sensor technology had improved considerably by then. The most common radioactive survey when I worked for them ,measured the density of the formation by bombarding it with gamma rays from a cobalt 60 source. ( about 1 Curie if I remember correctly). The amount of radiation reflected back to the tool was measured and gave a measurement of the bulk density of the formation. If you knew the type of formation (sandstone or limestone were the only ones of interest as that is usually the only type you find oil or gas in) then you knew the density of the pure rock and could calculate the porosity of the formation. From resistivity surveys. you could tell weather the pore spaces were filled with water or oil or gas.

Shooting a well is also called perforating. The well is cased with steel casing which is cemented into the hole from top to bottom. To allow the oil to flow into the hole, explosive shaped charges are located opposite the production zone and fired electrically from the surface. These blow holes about 12 mm in diameter through the pipe & cement and into the formation about a metre deep.

I don't know if Wellex used some other technology in those days, but they were looked down on buy the Schlumberger engineers as a "poor cousin". Shclumberger was the acknowledged leader in the field. They did huge amounts of research, built all their own equipment in house,and never patented anything. They believed that they could stay 2 years ahead of their competitors and didn't give out any information. I had to sign all sorts of confidentiality agreements when I went to work for them.

It seams kind of unlikely that they would have a radioactive source downhole while perforating as the sensors were really sensitive to shock. The Schlumberger sources were about 20 mm in diameter and maybe 100 mm long. They were a stainless steel tube with a Cobalt wire in them that was the actual source. I suspect that you could put them in a shotgun and shoot them at a wall without causing a leak.

On the other hand, I heard rumours that a long time ago,(1950')somebody had found an earlier type of source on a lease in northern Alberta. They used to take the source out of the truck and place it in a roped off area on a corner of the lease. Some cat skinner found it and used it as a track pin punch and ruptured it. The source material was a powder in the case and contaminated himself and a big area. It was all supposed to have been hushed up. I don't know how true it was but it was one of those "oilpatch myths" that circulated.

Schlumberger crews were chopped and changed and moved all over the country so the movement of the crew probably didn't have any sinister connotations.

Reply to
Tom Miller
Loading thread data ...

Tom knows his stuff - SLB stuff - I worked with some on some early IC's - they were thinking about using Bipolar IC's downhole. :-) The shaped charge was a cool concept.

Mart>>Can you fill me in on how a hole is profiled using a radioactive source?

Reply to
lionslair at consolidated dot

Ya, they impressed hell out of me. I saw some being test fired in the research labs in Huston. They had an ex-navy gunbarrel about 1 foot ID. It was set on end into the floor so that only the breach stuck out. An overhead crane lifted and replaced the breach and the target with the charge attached. The whole shebang was lowered about 30 feet to the bottom of the barrel. The breach was replaced & locked and the charge was fired electrically. There was hardly any noise. Sounded like someone had dropped a sledge hammer on the floor. The exercise was done again in reverse and the target set down for examination. They used a core of 3% porosity limestone as a target. When I was there after it was taken out the barrel, hot wax was poured into the perforation, then it was split lengthwise to see how deep it went and how big the hole was. I seem to recall that the perforation was about 12 mm(1/2") dia at the top and tapered off to nothing at about 30 inches. We used to have guns that shot 4 of these charges per foot so 50 feet of gun made a LOT of holes.

Sorry If you find this boring

Tom

Reply to
Tom Miller

Id have to say that at least a good portion of that story are bullshit. As best as I know..radioactive logging is only done by lowering a source into a well and reading the bounced back radiation from detectors sheilded from the source. Like shining a flashlight at th walls of a tunnel. Every material will absorb more or less of the radiation "beam".

Other forms of logging include reading the natural radioactivity of the subformations.

formatting link

So the drill string is unlikely to have been in the hole. And if there was a gas pocket that came up, or a blow out even with the drill string in the hole..that container is the least of their problems..as having several thousand feet of heavy heavy pipe, mud and water coming out of the hole straight up....is not condusive to standing around for very long. Think of it as steel toothpaste...it flys upwards, bends and then starts kinking, bending and falling back down on the the drilling floor, the rig itself and the crew.

Some of the radioactives that are used are pretty nasty stuff though.

Based on what I know of the roughnecks of yore..dying at 47 was not all that unlikely..they lived hard, played hard..and died hard.

On the gripping hand..there are lots of radioactives used in the pipeline industry for X-ray photographs of pipe weldments. Some of those can be pretty gnarly. Cesium-137 being one of them.

Gunner

Reply to
Gunner

Not me - I have a minor in Gulf regional strata - 35 years ago... . Taught by a long time 'shooter'. It was interesting and I still have one of my early notebooks.

Somewhere around here, I have a document and some pictures - a little press stuff. Maybe I'll post it if found and interest continues.

Just think - 30" and starting through a thick steel tube. Now that is neat when thinking it is deep and under pressure.

Martin

Reply to
lionslair at consolidated dot

Dangerous business in those days. Any roughneck that had been in the job for a couple of years and still had all his fingers was suspected of being a poofter.

Reply to
Tom Miller

Most of the perforating in my neck of the woods is the perforating gun..where a load of det cord blows X number of ball bearings out of bays on the perforating gun. The engineers pick the number, spacing and size of the balls and the shooter sets it up.

We fired one with a single ball once, 4" from the face of a well used

16lb sledge hammer. Put a perfect 1" dent in the face of the sledge hammer. I dont recall i f the balls are hardened steel, tungsten or what.

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

Reply to
Gunner

The shaped charge was a

We used them to blow jacket legs for platform removal. They were circular, had a hinge, and a clasp. We jetted around the jacket leg below the mud line, then attatched the charge. They surely cut steel cleanly. And killed a lof of fish that then were eaten by bigger fish and sharks. Quite a jet of water coming out topside, too.

In the drilling department, no one was allowed to be on the decks when they had the perforaters out and were loading them. More than once, they went off ahead of schedule.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

Yep.

The doodlebugs I was talking about - the decal I have - was the First business unit of TI - the 'semiconductor' company. Last I heard they are still (?still?) based in Houston.

I personly knew Victor G. (among others) and knew that TI was approached - but wouldn't sell. Even though they were very small unit then it wasn't for sell. I suspect It was a statement for an honorable death by retirements of the division. Never got to talk to Victor after that on the subject, but now he is with RIG or retired (I hope for him).

When in the field, I got to drive the suit types around - since I was a semi-suit myself. It was strange driving a VP or P from airport to meeting. These men were Giants in the field but put pants on like we do. And the chit-chat was from planning on the weekend, loosing luggage off the plane or taking heck for yet another un-planned trip while on a trip from the little lady.

Unique group of men and way of lives.

Martin

Reply to
lionslair at consolidated dot

I didn't work on rigs but I did haul a lot of oilfield stuff into and out of the oil patch from 1974 to 1982. I was an O/O leased to H.J.Jeffries Truck Lines out of Oklahoma City. It was a great experience. I just wish I would have kept better notes about some of the characters I met and the stories I heard. It would be great material for a bestselling novel. Dennis

Reply to
TwoGuns

Almost: went "legit" back in the '60s.

Second Generation: Dad was an Engineer with Schlumberger from '46 'till he died in '59 and I worked in their Houston Headquarters from '65 - '68.

I was working there when they created "Schlumberger Limited" and renamed their original operation "Schlumberger Well Services".

Reply to
RAM^3

They had a reputation of being a fantastic company to work for in those days. They were good to work for in my day(early 70"s), but the old hands used to tell stories about how well the Schlumberger family used to treat them. They always went first class!

Tom

Reply to
Tom Miller

You can believe the oldtimers' stories. Pierre and Marcel were definitely on the "good guy" list although the kids were much more status-conscious.

FWIW, I was, probably, the only kid that ever wanted his room painted "Schlumberger Blue" [with ~3" of white just below the white ceiling].

It's *still* my favorite color.

Reply to
RAM^3

You could recognize the vehicles anywhere at half a mile distance

Reply to
Tom Miller

Yep! Dark Blue with a White roof.

That started in ~1955. Before that, until '52, they didn't issue company cars and, '52- '54, there was no color scheme.

In '53 and '53 they issued Pontiacs and, in '54, they issued Mercurys. Dad always swore that the Oil Companies should have *given* those Mercuries away with the "catch" that the recipient buy all their gas from the donor: they were real gas hogs that used a lot of oil, too!

In '55 he got a White/Blue Chevy and, in '57, he got his last car before he died - a White/Blue '57 Ford equipped with the latest Optional Safety Accessory: 3" wide seat belts with Aluminum Cam-Action buckles. [See? *Some* metal content here!]

Reply to
RAM^3

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.