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Blow-Out: Trails & Errors (Page 4)
I: To The Big Cement Job

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Prior to staging in the cement slurry, the 2,000 lb. of lime were mixed and pumped down the Atlantic No. 3 well bore. Its purpose was to wash and clean the hole with the hope of getting a good cement bond.

A small army of men (about 75) had been mobilized because the cement (all in 87˝lb, bags) had to be man-handled off the stock pile, carried to the seven cutting tables, slit open and dumped into the hoppers, The cement was then jetted with water into the mixing tank, mixed with water and pumped as a slurry through the lines to Atlantic No. 3.

After many delays in thawing out lines, the trucks staged up and all were supposed to be on line at the same time. Paul Bedard's main motor on his truck failed and was pulled off. The two Dowell wagons didn't have enough "pump" and virtually did not contribute. They also came off the line.

The champion was the steamer on the FWD chassis which used steam from No. 48 boilers. It saved the day by processing up to 30 sacks a minute, This required two cutting tables and at least 30 men, The pressure of the work was getting to some of them, One of them told Cody; "I'd rather go to jail than throw cement into that SOB" and he took off.

Initial pumping pressure at the Atlantic No. 3 well had built up to about 2,200 psi, some of it termed "friction", at the commencement of the job at about 3 p.m. It dropped off when the slurry started to move through the lines. The cement was pumped over in seven batches and all of it was away by 7:30 p.m. Everybody was hoping the pressure would build up at some time during the cementing but it kept dropping off because the cement over-balanced all of the formation pressures in the hole. The D-3 formation "just sucked that cement in". The cement went into the well on vacuum, At 11 p.m., there were again 1,000 psi showing on the gauge at No. 3, indicating failure. As Pettinger said, (you might as well have pumped it into the North Saskatchewan River for all the good it did".7 Tom Wark, who Was there all day, echoed Pettinger's comment,"...all that did was make her produce better...never felt it afterwards or anything..."

Because Cyclone thought he knew 50% more than he did, and to show their "affection" for him, the Halliburton hands organized a going-away party for him. Needless to say, Cyclone was not invited.8

 

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