WorldWide Drilling Resource

WorldWide Drilling Resource ® is proud to be a member of these international associations. New Zealand Drillers Federation, Inc. +03.324 2040 Ontario Groundwater Association Tel: 519-245-7194 Fax: 519-245-7196 ogwa@ogwa.ca www.ogwa.ca Australian Drilling Industry Association adia@adia.com.au British Colmubia Ground Water Assn. Tel: 604-530-8934 Fax: 604-530-8934 isecretary@bcgwa.org • www.bcgwa.org Alberta Water Well Drilling Association Tel: 780-386-2335 awwda@xplornet.com Atlantic Water Well Association Tel: 888-242-4440 Fax: 902-435-0089 nsgwa@ns.aliantzinc.ca • www.nsgwa.ca 41 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® AUGUST 2014 Memories and Experiences by Art Beatty Geotec Boyles Bros S.A. By way of introduction, Mr. Art Beatty is a true legend in the drilling industry, and the WWDR Team is proud to call him friend. If you ever have the oppor- tunity to meet him, it will be an experi- ence you certainly will never forget. Art lives in Antofagasta, Chile, and works with Geotec Boyles. We have convinced him to share some of his great experi- ences with our audience across the world. And so he begins... In the summer of 1965, we made arrangements to drill an exploration water well, maybe about 200 feet, for the golf course at Safford, Arizona. Just as we were getting started, I was sent to Missouri on a start-up job. So away I went - my people in Arizona were able to do the job. After four days, I was called back. The well was 490 feet deep because the hydrogeologist decided to go deep- er to 500 feet, and they were broke off in the hole and couldn’t find the top of the drill pipe. My drill operator was sure he could show me where the top of the drill pipe should be. We made two trips into the hole - one with a bent drill pipe, and one with the bent drill pipe, and a guide that looked like an inverted fun- nel. No luck. While we were pulling out the drill pipe, a little of the mud got me. While wiping my face, I happened to get a taste of the mud - it was salty. I asked my drill operator if the geologist had said something about salt in the sample. He said yes, and that he hoped we would drill into better ground soon. So that’s why the drill hole was oversized and why we were having the problem. When we stopped for lunch, I was trying to decide what to do next. Our lunch was about over when I heard a large jet airplane flying over us. I told my crew if the plane could fly with jet power, I should be able to force my fishing tool over to the side of this over- sized hole with mud pump pressure. We cut a metal disk and welded it inside a drill pipe, then I had a half-inch hole put in the side of the tool joint pin above the disk plug. This allowed me to increase the mud pump pressure, to force the right-hand- threaded overshot fishing tool to the side of the hole. One thing we must remem- ber, every minute the mud pump is being used, we are proba- bly enlarging the diameter of the hole. That’s why we must l imi t t he t ime t he pump is in use. We know each time we run drill pipe into the hole, it must be tightened proper- ly. When I’m fishing, I t r y t o b e S U R E they’re tight. If we cannot recover the drill pipe and collars, w e mu s t t r y t o unscrew the fishing tool. When we low- ered the fishing tool just above the top of our broken off dri l l pipe (the fish), I noted the weight of the drill pipe. We marked the kelly with the fishing tool, just above the fish, then marked the rotary table so we could rotate the table one-fifth of one revolu- tion each time we lowered the fishing tool. The mud pump was mounted on the drill truck. With the pump pressure at about 200 psi, I lowered to three feet below the fish, then stopped the mud pump. I repeated this five times with no luck. We set mud pressure to 300 pounds the third time down and found the fish. We were able to thread the overshot over the fish, so the 150 feet of drill pipe and collars were not easy to get out. But little by little (no time to hurry now), after about one hour, they were free and all was saved. The drilling was stopped at 490 feet. The drilling machine was a GEFCO 1500 table drive, a good old rig. Beatty cont’d on page 44.