"if you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much room"

Friday, March 28, 2014

winding down

We survived another "frac" here in the oil patch. Once the wells are drilled a large crew arrives and does a process called Hydraulic Fracturing or "fracking" for short. The process includes many different "stages" where different chemicals mixed with water and sand are pumped at high pressure into the well. This fractures the shale around the end of the well casing pipe causing the oil to release from the shale and flow into the well. That's the readers digest version, I'm sure it is much more complicated then how I describe it. When the fracking is going on the pad is a flurry of activity 24 hours a day. We are kept hopping checking in the different crews and the almost endless line of semi trucks delivering the sand.


They finished the frac and moved out late last week and then we had a "coil tubing" crew move in for a few days. They clean the wells out of any debri left over from drilling and fracking. The next step was a "work over" rig whose job was to start the oil flowing and this was monitored by the "flow back" crew. The rig pulled out a few days ago and the flow back crew is moving out today and then we will be all alone here. The company man has put us on notice that our days are numbered on this gate. I guess the sun is setting on this season of gate guarding.



We will probably do a little "decompressing" somewhere close seeing as it has been almost 2 months since we have had a day off. We are both looking forward to getting away, going out to eat and maybe take a motorcycle ride. I'll keep you posted.
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6 comments:

  1. Jessica RikerFriday, March 28, 2014

    Wow, hard to believe you've been there almost two months! Enjoy your time off!! And then you are heading north? We are only four days from hitting the road for parts north and I am excited to get going. Watching the weather there and hoping the warming trend continues.

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  2. The BooneDocksFriday, March 28, 2014

    Interesting report on the fracking technology. Do you have any idea of how many extra barrels of oil they will get by having done this process where you are?

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  3. Al and KarenFriday, March 28, 2014

    Enjoy your time off. We're looking forward to leaving in 3 weeks and meandering our way west. Also looking forward to starting work!

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  4. Steve and JoanFriday, March 28, 2014

    Time sure flies! We leave April 15th headed to South Dakota. Not sure which roads we'll take but hope the weather is nice for sightseeing.

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  5. PhyllisSaturday, March 29, 2014

    The work over crew where we were by Alliance Airport in Fort Worth got done last week. So we were cut loose in Saturday. Starting at a new gate on Monday in Centerville, TX. Brand new site. Just now completing building the pad. We checked out the site yesterday. Expect to be there until we want to head to Alaska in June. I do appreciate your explanations. Hubby used to work in oil field and knows. Me, not too much.

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  6. Jim and JudySaturday, March 29, 2014

    Glad to hear you will be getting some well deserved time off soon. We just arrived in Amarillo today and will be here for about a week. We are straying at the Amarillo Family RV Park. I noticed a sign in the office indicating a need for some workamper. If you know of anyone looking for a position please pass the info along.

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