I spent 30 years on the drilling side of the industry in west Texas. Never learned the production side until my last 5 years. Zach has explained so well the production side of the industry. The challenges of the small independent oil producer are many and America is blessed to have many men like Zach building and producing American energy. Thank yo Zach for your series of videos. So educational.
@@TheZachLife My first job was pumping wells for an operator in south Arkansas. Love watching your videos. My family has been in the oil business for over 90 years. I’m third generation. We don’t operate anymore but still are active with taking WI deals with partners. Love these videos. Makes me proud to be an oil producer.
Amen Mr. Hamilton ! Like you, I started my "oil patch days" as a land-man putting mineral leases together for drilling prospects working for a "lazy" geologist/pet. engineer in Abilene, Tx. I quickly discovered my "duties" didn't end at the County Clerk's office/abstractors ! My "first rodeo" involved being told that TD would occur about 3:00A. one mrng on a well and "someone" needed to be there to start "catching samples" around 1:00AM and to call when they were gathered and labeled. He showed up around 6:00AM for the "brain work". Long story short, I ended up spending many a cold cold night in the mesquite brush pastures and wheat fields of west central Texas catching samples, "baby-sitting" wire line services, making roads/drill sites, overseeing the set up production equipment from well-heads, pumping units, to tank batteries. I worked about 10 counties from San Angelo all the way to Breckenridge, Tx. as far west as Colorado City and back east to Eastland and negotiated purchase contracts with crude buyers/refineries along with division order title opinions. You should have seen the "city boy dummie look" on my face when I learned that "NO, oil is not found in giant "pools" or "hollow caverns" under the ground" --- LOL ! I was equally dumb-founded when I learned about porosity and permeability from microscopic samples under a microscope ! Truly fascinating ! Loved every minute of it and learned TONS about the entire industry. Fascinating stuff for sure ! We all know what happened in the mid 80's and a lot of us ended up squeezing out a living doing something else .....sadly !
This channel is so underrated. I never worked or lived near an oilfield but you do such a good job explaining, making it interesting, and enjoyable to watch!
I cant tell if this guy is in his 20s 30s 40s or 50s but he has this aura and character of the old school guys we rarely see these days. its a breath of fresh air
It seems that the trial and tribulations of stripper well production in Oklahoma are the same ones my Dad faced in Pennsylvania! Watching your series has been a good trip back in time for me - and should be "required watching" for anyone who thinks that everyone in the oil business is a tycoon and has it easy. Thank you!
Daaang Zack, I'da "burned" that surface casing off at 200 feet, filled it with "mud" to the bottom of the casing then dumped about 10 yrd of concrete in that "trouble making nightmare" and called her 'DONE" !!! Long before the 3 rd or 4th "trip" in and outta that "dollar dump" !! My hats off to ya Pal, with all that determination and perseverance !! SAAALUTE !
These are fascinating videos. I retired from the oil/gas/power generation field and have been around oil patches for a long time. Our business was gas turbines, generators and compressors - But you get to know some things in the process of your day to day activities. All what I thought I knew has been greatly supplemented by your videos! It's a hard way to make a living. Rewarding at times and pretty darned frustrating at other times. Thanks for taking us along with you!
This video series has been great so far! Hopefully more people will start to find these videos and your channel because you have a wealth of knowledge you’ve been sharing through all your projects. Keep up the great work!
For a Oregon northerner, i find this very interesting as to what the oil business is about and the work involved in making a buck or two. and thanks for the explanation of how it works. Great videos, thanks
I had a 400 foot water well that was 12 inches in diameter with a 13 stage centrifugal pump broken off laying in the bottom. About 100 foot of tubing and line shaft still attached to the pump. I fished it out with a piece of tubing that fit close to the ID of the casing with some old car leaf springs welded in it to latch onto the pump and related mess. It worked good and I got the mess about half out when the tubing connected to the pump broke again. When that thing dropped it felt like a small earthquake. I got it hooked again and got it out but that was another day or so on site fishing. I think just the recovery of the old pump cost about $10,000 and that was almost 20 years ago; Probably not as bad as your problem but I sure understand the difficulty of recovering junk from the bottom of a well
@@TheZachLife I have to tell you, the leaf springs welded into the ID of my fishing tube worked great. I didn't know to use the leaf springs when I started the project, but an old well driller stop by the site when he saw the crane and we got to shooting the shit and he shared that trick with me. Save me lots of time
Daaaang Joe, my hat is OFF to ya Pal !! Leaf springs off a vehicle ? Wow, pretty ingenious it sounds like to me ! Now THAT is a prime example of "oil patch CREATIVITY" or "field engineering" at its best ! SAAALUTE ! But, could you explain briefly a "13 stage pump" ? Never heard THAT one before ......
thanks Zach, as a Canadian I cant run wells like you. I'm in Alberta and there are abandoned wells all over the place that I am sure that the big companies decided it was too much work for not enough return. I would love to try out what you do. small independent producers such as yourself are the reason US is making so much oil and allowing you to make a living. Not my business how much you make but looks like you are getting by and I like your boss, seems like a good guy. I have learned so much since I subbed to your channel. Anyhow, cheers from Calgary , Canada.
same everywhere... in US too. the wells peter out to nothing so they are abandoned in place. someone takes the surface equipment off the well for scrap? and leaves a venting/bleeding water and oil well in the middle of the forest or the farmers field or ... without spending a little money to run a packer to seal off the fresh water sands. wireline packer cant cost that much to run/set and some cmt on top of it?
great show, brings back memories of my early days, worked on a pole unit in Lindsay OK, run those sucker rods out, very hard work. then moved on to over seas oil for 30 years.
Another great video, Zach. I love the "dinky details," that is what makes your videos so good. Have you thought about teaching oil field safety and training for new pumpers? You express yourself well and have good teaching skills....Im sure a local community college or oil company would welcome your expertise. Keep up the great work, always a pleasure to view.
@@TheZachLife So sorry you had those injuries. Yes, I see your point, however it adds to your experiences of what "not" to do to in the oil field. Its makes your experiences more real life and valuable. I would trust your safety measures any day.
Don't be afraid to try to casing swab it. Or play it safe and swab it through the tubing with a packer. The formation sand probably swollen up with all the water on top of it when washing. I had a lease like this that was 5K to buy and it wouldn't feed in. Sat for a couple of years when we bought it and worked it over. The formation sand had plenty of time for the clays to un swell and we couldn't even circulate. We tried to wash with 33 gravity crude oil instead of field salt water to try not to disturb the formation. Formation stayed on a vacuum. We pumped a few barrels of xylene and a little 7% hcl and chased it back with crude oil to clean the perfs up. Came the next morning and swabbed all the crap back. Returns looked like black sewer water. Swabb runs cleaned up good before the end of the day. Put it back on pump and set it to tap bottom a bit so it wouldn't gas lock. Well stabilized @ 25bbls of oil a day with a trace of water. Had best I could see in a graduated cylinder a 95% cut. Got lucky, but we played it safe without using just water to wash with. Then sold the well after a few months of production for a good profit. New company had the pump go out after a year or so and the new guy in charge loaded up the well with field salt water before they pulled the well. After I told them don't. Well locked up again and has been sitting for a few years again currently. Some formations just can't take a lot of water top of them. Usually the pressure depletion ones.
The closest I have ever come to an oil field is to use sucker rods on top of my cattle guards. Having said this, I am fascinated by your channel. You have explained how an oil field works very clearly while being entertaining. Great videos - subscribed.
I am a machinist and a tool hand. I never thought I would find something like this on RU-vid. I’ve always been interested in the economics and who operates stripper wells. This is good stuff, you got a like and a subscribe.
After I have 50 years in the oil patch your problems sound just very normal. I wish you good luck it's a very hard industry to make a living at. For my thinking I would get rid of those metal-to-metal pumps. Never like them would not use one on the bet
@@TheZachLife I was wondering if you could have ran a insert pump until you get the well lined out. just a thought. enjoying the videos! im retired pumper. God Bless!!
The question that comes up a lot more than once during an experience like this one --- "Are we having fun yet ???" ... there's always that one well that causes more expense and aggravation and consternation than three dozen others combined, but, yet, that's a normal day in the patch ... Keep pump'n that Texas Crude !!
Memories of my days in East Texas oilfield but with free-flowing gas wells. Think I know about where you are in Texas as I have passed through the area many times driving truck. Not unlike a gambler at a poker table hoping for a good hand; that is the life of an independent operator in your line of work. Good luck. I do so enjoy and can still smell that sweet crude.
Hey man, As a petroleum geologist on the exploration side, I'm extremely far removed from this end of the business. Enjoy the videos and you've got a good presentation ability as well. Cheers!
Great videos Zach! I used to work on Rigs in the highest tech end of the ultra deep water offshore drilling industry where we hoped to drill wells producing 20-30 thousand barrels per day, some costing 100’s of millions and had our share of economic failures. Really enjoy your hands on videos of the older land wells.
I'm never surprised at how little I know. I love learning about everything. A Jack of all and a Master at none would describe myself. I love learning from others who are indeed Masters at their own professions. Two videos from you so far and subscribed. Looking forward to learning more from your channel. God bless.
Great video Zach! You do an outstanding job explaining. I've often wondered how the pumping mechanism worked. I see something got hold of your index finger too. Ever since I got 2 of my fingers mashed off, I pay closer attention to people's hands.
honestly I had almost the exact same thing happened to me with an old well. Unfortunately it still hasn't come back on oil and I decided not to fool with it but use the money to drill another will. But good for you for your persistency. As far as changing the speed of the well I would suggest using a variable speed drive instead of changing out pulleys. Look at KB electronics and particularly KBAC electronic box it will make your life simpler. Thanks for these videos they're incredibly helpful particularly how to test the fluids fill without using a dyno leader card for a shallow well.
I dont know squat about oil wells, but using a frequency drive to double the speed of a motor running 24/7 is not a great solution. The bearing life will be poor. Depending on the design of the motor, torque can be reduced significantly running at higher then design speeds, causing it to run hot. So added cost of the drive. Aditional failure point of another component in the system. Reduced motor service life. Keeping it simple spending 20 minutes to swap a $100 pulley is going to be the most reliable.
There are freq drives all over and they are mint. You can adjust the speed and save 25% of the energy cost. If you were to put a drive on this well you would have the bigger shiv on there and slow it down to the speed you want. They run $5-10k for just a drive.
While working for Fred Klingsmith outside of Sapulpa Okla, He had a pumping well next to his tanks, and one evening, for the heck of it, I mounted and rode one of those pumps. It was easier getting on than getting off LOL
I worked on a pulling unit in the early/Mid 80's for Flag Redfern in the Odessa/Midland area. McCamey to be exact. Really enjoying the look back at the oil field. Thanks Zach!!
Since you are shallow (1600?) you’d be better off running a 20 ring PA plunger so you can pump trash. It’ll wear the ID of your barrel faster than a precision tho. That can be combatted with a brass nickel carbide barrel, which is basically indestructible. Also, surprised the sheer pressure was more than 40k. Great stuff dude, love your videos.
9:09 That oscillation of the adjustable wrench, is due to the twist of the wire above, going up to the head. As the pump starts lifting and the tension increases, the wire rope start to untwist (giving the movement). At the top of the stroke, the load drops and the wire rope can re-twist, back to it's starting point.
This is an excellent comment, i worked with large cranes and hydraulics for many years and this is why you see tag lines (sometimes multiples) tied off to either a spotter, or even winches. As the weight increases and the size of the wire rope increase the tendency to spin becomes more aggressive.
Your not wrong BUT it's very easy to differentiate fluid pound (like slapping water) vs bridle/cable load. Most my wells are bigger and move more water (pump faster with larger diameter pump) making the fluid pound clear just driving by which is first detail I look at when I make my daily inspections so I know it's pumping correctly without opening a valve.
I hope your teaching some young person all this knowledge, that's all hard and dirty work, I liked fixing heavy equipment but not many people do anymore.
Sounds like this is a Shakespeare lease...... You have such with this well, even though you had to fight it at every step. You could have made an entire series of videos on this well work. Did you save the piece of tubing y'all fished out? Bet its been in there since the well was drilled. Thanks for bringing us along!!
Haha something like that. In hindsight I wish I would have videoed the complete process but at the time each aspect didn't seem all that interesting. I took pictures of everything but have given it to the scrapers. There was a gas anchor, seat nipple, AD-1 baker, and two joints of tubing.
Hello and thanks for all your knowledge sharing. While out west 2 years ago on vacation. I didn't see as many old standard pumps like yours. Still saw the oil and water separator tanks. But saw different pumps that looked like my jet water well pump. Is that new way to get oil?
Very interesting. When you buy a lease like that does that include ownership of the land? Is the pump considered the bottom section with the check valve? When you did the first time test it looked like straight water coming from the well. Out of curiosity how deep is this well? With all this work, what about the shake down cruise? 👍Kc
I need to do video on the ownership of leases in texas because its pretty confusing. In texas the ownership of the land and the underground minerals are completely unrelated. A lease is called a lease because its a lease, like renting something, from the mineral owners. These leases can have any imaginable terms including lease termination dates, a commitment to drill a number of wells, and how much of the gross income the mineral owners get. This lease a stipulation that we can not drill deeper than 2000ft. Most leases including this one are valid indefinitely as long as there are producing wells on the property and is not a period on no production longer that X months. The mineral owners get 1/8 of the gross income from this lease as the payment of the lease. In texas by law all oil production must be under an oil and gas lease even if the lessor and lessee are the same person. The barrel, plunger, seating shoe and standing valve are all know as the pump. The barrel shown screws onto the last joint of tubing. Before the well was "pumping down" meaning removing all fluid the well would give up, the well was only making water. This is common to have to pump all the water a well will make before they will make any oil. This well is 1600'
thanks for the great vid. sounds like a lease like mine. i inject water only at 700 psi and don't think that does much to enhance the oil production. did you say you were at 1,600psi? i need to figure out how high to go then get a new psi approval. also you said for this type well it was best to have production tubing near bottom of formation as opposed to top. can you explain? thanks. John
Thanks our injection pressure runs about 250psi. I was probably referring to the depth of formation at 1600ft. These low volume, low static fluid level wells need to be pumped close to the formation because the pressure required to "push" fluid up the hole will lower the total fluid output of the well. Its not uncommon around here to see wells being pumped a joint of a few joints off of bottom but that would significantly lower production on a well like this.
Thanks for the video Zach, you know according to the idiots in Washington D.C. all you have to do is grab a shovel and a bucket dig a small hole in the ground and yippee "I'm rich" I hope the well pays off for you, you deserve it, thanks for the info.
We just replaced the original tubing and pumping cable and derrick on our 1895 family drilled well. Aside from how the new pump operates we have had a good start. What puzzles me is how the 1850 foot deep well accumulated 1500 feet of fluid over the 3 years of inactivity. The normal gas pressure is 150psi but I have seen 200psi. We use the gas in the cold months for heat. Any ideas? This is the only well we own and operate. We do have a partner who has wells.
The one I use is “rod pump calculator pro”. We stay away from the vfd’s because of the expense and that they blow up. Thanks for watching and good luck with your well.
So, still not really clear on what you're seeing with the wrench on the rod. Are you saying that you can feel the impact of balls seating through the handle of the wrench?
Not typically. Its usually caused by some kind of failure of the pumping unit, however I have seen on at least two occasion a pump stick down with a small junky unit that caused it to completely wad up.
man i would have just fished the tubing and everything then cleaned it to bottom with a chisel tooth, bailed it until i had clean fluid and put it on pump. you did it the expensive way. this is why i like the buycrus erie 60l i use.
So the well was producing brine and not oil because of slippage? Then increase the pump rate, drawing the brine down so the oil floating on top and it now produces oil? Nice.
just curious as i know nothing about the oil business. when you bought that do you get the whole kit n kaboodle ie tank separator ect. or do have to run it to yours?
One of my first areas to work as a petroleum geologist in the early 1980s was on the Eastern Shelf of the Midland Basin. Just curious as to where (state/county) your leases are located. I can tell from the size of your pumping units that they are probably operating in shallower areas that I was not working. I think the shallowest well that I ever had drilled was 3500 ft.
I've learned a lot from your videos! They've answered a lot of questions I've had about how oil wells work. Have you since adjusted the pump rate to get rid of the pounding? Or is pounding okay? If you're injecting on the lease, how long does it take the water to make it back to the extraction wells? Isn't that a bit counter-productive if the water floats the oil above the pump?
Its been slowed back down some. The pound is just hard on everything. The oil is carried through the formation via the water. If the formation is effectively pumped dry theres no means to get the oil to the well bore.
So what about some kind of x-ray machine you could lower down in there to measure the thickness and the quality of the pipe?. And in the scenario like that, would it be worth to drill a well right next to this one plug the other one up?
So we're several months later. Hopefully the well is still making oil without issue. Is there such a thing as a plug that can be pushed down the well to just lock all the trash down at the bottom at the expense of a few feet of depth? Do you normally drill past the production zone for that reason?
Thanks. It's been pumping without much issue. There is usually what's called "rat hole" below the formation for trash to settle in. Small amounts usually will fall to bottom without much issue. This case was just a string of really unlucky circumstances.
Would you be interested in coming to Kentucky and not have to produce so much water and still get some reasonable amount of oil? I have one of the best places I have seen in 50 years for finding oil it's literally surrounded in oil and gas and less than 1500 ft deep
You wouldn't have spent the money if you didn't feel the potential. You must want to get to the casing shoe or deeper....open up the perfs where the junk is blocking inflow. How long was the acid there before producing(maybe too much damage). Under balanced clean out with air compressors wash over and soapy, corrosion inhibitors could get to the shoe but $$$ to jar out if not freed. First time I've seen such an honest well owner.
Zach your making me cry! Independent producers must have big ones! My dad bought three shallow stripper 1960's in San Andreas. He sold them after ten years because they were "wearing" him out since he was a gas well pumper for E.P.N.G I wanted to share the tubing stuck in sand story. I came back to our sw texas town and got a chance to pump a lease. It literally had a pulling unit on a well stuck in down hole frac sand. When I arrived on location, the crew was hack sawing the rods as they came out of hole. As they were painfully cutting the rods, three trucks plus a reverse drill unit was on stand by time. I almost puked when I found out how much we were spending per hour! That night I hired the consultant with 50 yrs experience. Straight away he sent the reverse drill plus three other trucks home. Once out of hole, with rods and tubing, he placed a 'notched collar" on tubing dropping it into sand then come out of hole then back. Quickly we were pushing, with a kill truck, lease water down the annulus then up tubing next to a frac tank with a some porch screen where we caught the sand. Late that December evening it was pumping double valved pump. That was my first week at pumping! What a lesson in expenditure. Up to this point, my opinion was that pumpers had an easy life. That old man guided the lease back to prosperity. The years of education were evident when you shook his thick rock like hands. You remind me of him. God bless you and family. Thanks for the knowledge. I could learn a boatload from you. cr
I haven't seen any poc's a lot of older wells are on timer to prevent them from running in a pumped off/low pump fillage condition for extended periods of time.
Nice video and story on your lease purchase, Zach. I am guessing you are in TX somewhere? I am a petroleum engineer, but spent my whole career with SLB, so, have not seen the pumper side of the story. Very educational. Thanks, new sub.
so you actually want the water back in? to keep the oil at the top? id kinda assumed you want the water gone or your just pulling it up and then injecting it and then going round and round
If the water isn't returned to the formation the well will run out of fluid. In wells like this it takes water to carry oil around the formation and into the well bore.
