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Blow-Out: Trails & Errors (Page 3)
I: To The Big Cement Job

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E.A. (Ed) Cote, manager of Halifax Insurance Company's Edmonton office, was personally acquainted with Dr. J,O,G, (Pete) Sanderson, consulting geologist in Calgary. On March 29, he wrote Pete:

    ...We are interested in this oil well which went out of control some time ago and I am wondering if you could advise me in what way an occurrence of this nature would happen - is it a case of the well being too powerful for the equipment or would it be a situation where there was not the proper care or supervision taken, We are interested from the negligence viewpoint and I would appreciate any information you would furnish us with...4

Sanderson showed the letter to Gene Denton, General Petroleums/Denton and Spencer head who obviously was pleased to be made aware of the problem from an insurance standpoint.5

Pete replied:

    ...I told him (Mr, Mirtle of Middleton and Tait) it is a petroleum engineer's problem and one upon which I would not care to express a formal opinion, except possibly very specifically on the geological aspects of the case, I informed him also that I do a great deal of my work in co-operation with General Petroleums, the contractor on that job, and would not care to be involved in any way except possibly in their interests. Sorry I cannot be of assistance to you this time...6

Meanwhile, back at the well, the 7 in. flow line had come loose and required repairs. This was accomplished by a lead sheathing. Bohme describes the patch fabricated by Earl Griffith, mastermind fabricator, welder and owner of Barber Machine shop in Edmonton, and installed on April 1:

    Quite ingenious, made in two sections so it fitted around the 7 in. flow line in one part and also around the bottom of the Hosmer head so that when it was bolted together it would fit snugly. The patch had a lead gasket in it that was placed up against the leaking portion, When the bolts were tightened up, it very effectively shut off the leak, This was the only possible solution because leaking oil and gas precluded the use of a welding torch.

Manhandling cementThe next decision was reached: to pump massive amounts of cement slurry down No. 3, using Imperial No. 48 as the base of operations. Bill Cummer recalls ordering out the cement, but because of the road ban and the fact that the roads were in terrible condition (no gravel, let alone asphalt, west of Leduc), only half loads were permitted. This slowed down the mobilization at No. 48. However, 10,000 sacks were stacked on hastily constructed mats, along with 2,000 sacks of lime. (See Appendix E.)

Bohme recalls the "big cement job" in that they spent many days packing the cement through the mud and along 3 in. plank walkways. The trucks could not get to the planked area so the hands carried it on their backs.

At that time, there were just two oil field service companies in Canada: Halliburton and Dowell. The former had seven cement trucks; one of these was an old FWD (four wheel drive) with three horizontal steam pumps, a veteran of Turner Valley days. It was hoped to use all seven but an emergency at Lloydminster required two wagons there. Dowell was talked into loaning two of their trucks (both power).

R.H, (Dick) Gibbons, Halliburton's Canadian manager, was approached by Denton and Spencer regarding the proposed cement job. Dick had originally come up from the States and was an admirer of "Cyclone" O'Donnell (a sentiment not shared by other Halliburton hands at Leduc). When O'Donnell arrived from Duncan, Oklahoma headquarters, Pettinger said that "cyclone" had everything figured out in fifteen minutes as to what to do. O'Donnell's theory was cement was just as cheap as mud and if the cement set up in the Atlantic No. 3 surface casing or drill pipe, so much the better.

In preparation for the big cement job, another perforating gun was brought in on April 2, but it got stuck in the drill pipe. An echometer was run on April 5 to try to locate fluid levels in the drill pipe and annulus but nothing definite was obtained. The line on which the gun had been run was pulled out at the socket; this line had to be got out of the way so that a manifold could be installed on the top of the drill pipe at No. 3 to take the slurry from No. 48.

Spencer was on hand that day, wearing his Denton and Spencer hat. He must have been very anxious to see the cement set up. There was one person in the Halliburton organization that could (and did) stand up to Cody: Lyall Thorpe, field superintendent. When an impasse developed, it was Lyall who would move in (not without some pleasure) and force his hard-nosed opinions on Spencer. Pettinger and Thorne were put in charge of the trucks and saw to the hooking up of the manifolds at No. 3 and where the trucks were to be spotted at No. 48.

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