We have hired a new workover rig company to work on our wells. They are experienced in the shallow methane well pulling (300-1500 feet) but almost nil in anything deep. Plus thgere is a world of difference between dry gas and liquid hydrocarbons. It's also one of the reasons I haven't been around lately. I have miles of patience in these situations, I don't ridicule, berate or fly off the handle for no reason. I don't normally chase the rigs, but in this instance i do. Our first project with tyhem is a fishing job and casing repair at 8,000 feet. this crew will see it all on this job. My first order when i pulled on location was " pull on it some more, shit we're barely above string weight" and we promptly pulled the tubing in two. They're lesson in that---even the company man can be wrong, but you do what he tells ya. The tubing was rated at 72,000lbs tensile strength, we only pulled 42,000 on it. The tubing was rotten, we had just bought the well and knew nothing about it
When the tubing separated it was pretty shallow, the tubing shot up through the blocks and the crew scattered, I sat 4 feet from the wellhead on the back of a trailer wondering when they're gonna stop running. things settled down and they meandered back, I told them it looked like about a 5 joint break and hell boys the derrick is still in the air we goter dicked! It was parted in the middle of the 5th joint. Needless to say NO ONE calls a joint count to the break as that is folly, the crew looked at me in a different light then. Since that I have their attention, you can teach all you want, and lead by example, bu if they don't believe in ya your words fall on deaf ears.
We were stacked out going in the hole with rods to get the wireline boys downhole to cut the tubing off, the operator was tapping on it lightly , I let him do this for about twenty minutes when I walked up and told him to reach out and touch the damn thing like he learned yesterday, to which he replied, " Oh ya mean give it the Laatsch Special" kinda sarcastic like and I said "Yep, that's it". he pulled up 60 feet let the rods free fall till 1 foot above the bridge then stopped them IMMEDIATELY like I taught him the day before, that stretches the rods and adds quite a punch at the end of their stretch, the rod string bounced once and promptly kept going south. I didn't say a word, just walked back to my truck. Sometimes teaching involves silence.
I'll add that some of them aren't human in form, my beloved Akita I-Da-Ho, my daughter, my soul-mate, love of my entire life!
