WorldWide Drilling Resource

63 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® APRIL 2014 Reggie’s World by Reggie Stockert Buckeye BOP llc This month the editorial topic is on exploration. I sat back and thought to myself, “Reggie, is it not in all forms of drilling?” Consider the information available to us today. The records available from the Internet, drilling reports from previ- ous exploration, common knowledge of the surrounding area, along with what is imbedded in our minds as drilling pro- fessionals from our experiences. When the derrick goes up, the hole goes down, with all the background information on location in the hands of the drill crew. But, when the drill tools start to ad- vance, the information slowly becomes irrelevant. Even if you drilled the hole 5 feet, 50 feet, ½ a mile, or 5 miles from where you are, each and every hole has its own personality and the records may be similar but not exact. As a drilling contractor, you follow the closest log and you adjust as you see what lies ahead. You also make mental adjustments to the information the hole is giving you from the debris flowing to the surface. I guess what I am trying to explain is, in all forms of drilling with the best-laid plan, each and every hole reveals a new horizon the previous logs did not expose. So in fact, each and every hole we put down is new and becomes new exploration. In my early 20s, I test drilled a farm for gravel for the expansion of the neigh- boring gravel pit. They were making the jump from dragline excavation to barge suction extraction. I must have drilled 50 holes on that 150-acre farm. The owner had several other drilling con- tractors on-site before me. Each one of us was investigating the same land, but different aspects of the underling forma- tion. My company brought to the table good old-fashioned cable tool drilling, and was only interested in mud or clay confining layers at depths of 60-100 feet. The other drill crews had established Til next month, Reggie Reggie Stockert may be contacted via e-mail at admin@ worldwidedrillingresource.com the potential of the farm. I was in for the sizing of the dredge they would purchase as any mud seam or a clay layer would determine the depths on which they could mine. In my recent travels, I have gone past this gravel plant and they're just now in to the acres I test drilled some 30 years ago. But, as I have told this story, you have already figured out the information they received back then has influenced the destiny of today. In recapping, we all have an idea of what is below the surface where we stand, but you truly don’t now what's there until it is drilled. Stockert trans. cont’d on page 68.