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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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