Liz,
Charles and Lawrence are both right. I’m working with OXY and they have a “spudder rig” come and drill the first approx. 2000 feet and set the surface casing. Then they will schedule a full size rig to finish the well. After that, they schedule the completion (fracing) of the well. This could take 4-6 months from beginning to end. Then it’s it’s another couple of months before the check comes out.
Mike
I’m sorry for this very basic question but I haven’t found an answer in my researches. I notice that on Drilling Permit forms, spud dates and surface-casing dates are often listed. They are usually within a couple of days of one another. But the drilling-completed dates may be months and months later. I didn’t think it took that long to drill anymore so what causes the lag? TIA.
Liz…Drilling and from the surface to the depth they set surface casing (2500 to 5000 feet depending on the type well) only takes a couple of days because the formations are relatively soft. The further you go down the more compression load is on the rock in the various formations and the denser they become…finally approaching the hardness of diamond. Diamond coated drill bits dull faster with the denser rock formations at depth, necessitating pulling the drill pipe and bit out and changing the bit. That all takes time. Some horizontal wells take 3 months or more to drill and complete. Even after the tapered strings of casing are set in the well…the completion date is not until the perforating, fracking and acidizing, and flowback testing is complete. That takes months and months. Hope that helps you understand reason for the drilling and completion dates delays on a well.
near Verhalen
Thank you, Charles and Lawrence. Lots of new, interesting info for me.
Sections 17 and 18 in Block 56 PSL - Looking to sell now.
Abstracts 4452 and 4453
15.2381 participating mineral acres undivided across both section 17 and 18
38.0950 non-participating mineral acres undivided across both sections 17 and 18
Total of 53.3331 royalty acres
Have multiple mail offers to purchase.
Will entertain highest offer in excess of $20,000 per ma
Make offer by email to: donnylh@yahoo.com
Donny
We got a request for permission for a 3D seismic survey (no problem with this). Our ownership is listed as fee minerals. What is fee minerals?
Thanks, Mike. Until I asked my question, I didn’t realize two different drilling set-ups were used to complete one well. I can see how that - plus the depth and length of the drill - would take a lot more time. We have two wells that are apparently through the “spudder-rig” phase but have not been completed (and according to what I have learned!) are probably some time from being completed.
Mike… Old drillers and oilfield hands don’t call those rigs that drill the first 2000 feet to set surface casing ‘Spudder rigs’. They are called Rat Hole machines, because they drill the hole for the start of drilling, and near the ‘cellar’ where that hole is, they drill two more holes about 50 feet deep. One is the Rat Hole where the Kelly (that steel square tubing 36 foot joint that slides down through the rotary table and is spun by the rotary table to spin the drill bit and drill the well) is placed when they are making a connection, and the other is the Mouse Hole where the next joint of drill pipe stands waiting for the Kelly to be broken out and made up in the next joint of drill pipe to be picked up to continue drilling…that’s called ‘making a connection’ each time another joint of drill pipe is added to the string. You’ll hear old drilling hands, roughnecks, talk about ‘Crummies’…those are chain driven tongs…both makeup and backup tongs. You’ll also hear they talking about ‘tossing the chain’, using a spinning chain controlled by the hand of one of the roughnecks to make up the next joint of drill pipe when making a connection. You’ll also hear them talking about the slips…yanking the slips, or setting the slips…wedge shaped tapered metal surfaces that set in a bowl to grip the drill pipe and prevent it from dropping through the rotary table, descending into the borehole and causing a ‘fishing job’ where they gotta run an overshot fishing tool to fish the drill string back out of the borehole. Nowadays, they have pipe spinners instead of Crummy chain tongs and makeup spinning chains. In the derrick they have electric hoist ‘Mules’ to pull back drill collars and drill pipe so it can be stood back in the fingers in the derrick when they are ‘making a trip’. We used to have to hand muscle those drill collars and drill pipe…so we got muscled up in our torsos. We had SOME ‘modern’ conveniences…like a cat line to help move things…but we weren’t half the men our fathers were who drilled the wells in the 30s, 40s, and 50s out here. My Dad died in 1991 at the age of 80…and you STILL couldn’t pinch an 1/8th of an inch of fat on him anywhere. All those men that worked with my Dad around Wink were like that…didn’t know their own strength. near Verhalen
Lawrence,
I was just using the lingo that OXY used. I’m very familiar with the terms you used as I worked my way through Texas A&M working in the oilfield around Wichita Falls and in the Austin Chalk around Bryan/College Station. It was the best work in the world and I still use a lot of the “education” I received as “oil field trash” !!!
Great work, great industry, and great people !!!
Mike
Hello,
We own 3.33 acres on the SE/4 of Section 136, Block 13, H&GN RR. Survey in Reeves County.
We have a couple company counter offering to lease or buy our mineral rights.
Just wondering what the going rate actually is.
Any help would be appreciated.
Sharon R.
TF.
We do not own the surface. Sections 17 and 18 in Blk 56 PSL are not state classified. We do own the surface of state classified land in Sec 37, Blk 55 PSL. so I know the difference. Not all the land/minerals in PSL survey blocks are state classified.
Donny
Anything recent drilling activity going on in 56-16 and 56-6 (BHP)? Cimarex, the current leaseholder of 56-16, indicated last year that it seemed probable that they would drill in late 2017.
Any up to date info would sure be appreciated.
Donny,
i am not sure i follow, are you selling surface acres? If PSL, then as i am understanding, the State owns the minerals. Please correct me if i am wrong.T. F. -
If you will Google “Mineral Classified Lands” you will get a zillion hits regarding Relinquishment Lands in Texas.
In short, if any given lands are “Mineral Classified” lands, the State School Land Board owns the minerals and whoever at the time owns the surface acts as Agent for the State in negotiating an Oil and Gas Lease.
The Surface Owner / Agent and the State School Land Board split the Bonus, Rentals and Royalties 50-50.
Any Lease has to be approved by the School Land Board, which is guided and advised by the Landmen at the Texas General Land Office.
HA,
thanks for the clarification. learn something new everyday
Small, large companies finding labor shortage, high demand for tools The Houston Chronicle reported last week that small oilfield services companies such as Byrd Oilfield Service and global giants such as Halliburton are finding far fewer people willing to work for a “boom and bust” industry. The Chronicle said since mid-2016, as crude oil prices and drilling activity recovered, oil producers and service companies have hired about 30,000 workers in Texas after cutting more than 100,000 oilfield jobs across the state from December 2014 to July 2016. Drilling has surged in the Permian Basin this year, but the shortage of workers for fracking crews has led oil companies to leave hundreds of wells untapped for months in west Texas. (Read more…) near Verhalen
Lawrence – you have the basis for a new C&W song. I can hear it already.
There ain’t no place for workers to live here in Reeves County and work
at any job in the Delaware Basin…and they can’t afford a place to put
an RV, pay the payment on the RV, pay their truck payment, pay the RV
slot payment, pay the power, water, and sewer, buy groceries, gasoline/diesel, wash clothes to work in…and have anything left over to send to the wife and kids…which is WHY they are out here in the first place.
When the major operators are forced to reclaim the frack and produced water from the wells and make it into fresh water (drinkable and for use as irrigation water to satisfy the TQEC…what are they gonna do with all that water?? And all that water will drive the price of fresh water sales
down to where the water stations will make no profit…so the owners will dry up and blow away.
To sustain growth, the county has got to find a way to provide affordable housing, stores to have affordable clothing, food, and fuels. I guarantee the major oil and gas operators will find a way to provide all those things to their employees if the county and its citizens don’t.
near Verhalen
Yeah,M.A. Smith…Think I could get KIUN/KPTX to play it? "There ain’t
no place to live and work in Reeves County"…What C&W star could we
get to sing it??
near Verhalen
Here’s something Reeves county mineral and surface land owners can
get behind to grow the area: H.R. 2657, the Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption (PRIME) Act, would empower states to set requirements and limitations on custom processing facilities as each state deems appropriate. The PRIME Act enables in-state sale of custom-slaughtered beef, pork, lamb, and goat to individual consumers, restaurants, hotels, and grocery stores.