On the left is the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij BV (NAM) No. 2 Steen underway near the village of 't Haantje, Netherlands, 1965. In late November NAM encountered several over-pressured zones in the Germanic Trias formations of the Jurassic, in route to a total depth of 6,555 feet. They were getting their asses kicked, actually; total gas had been increasing steadily and weighing up the mud was leading to lost circulation problems. A decision was made to set a protective string of...

Boots Hansen (1926-2019) Ekofisk Bravo 1976 The giant, Ekofisk oil field was discovered in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea in 1969, about 180 miles southwest of Norway, in 285 feet of water. Phillips Petroleum was the operator. Ekofisk was the first commercial oil discovery in the North Sea. The field was initially delineated and developed from three well platforms, Alpha, Bravo and Charlie; in 1996-1998 addition wellhead platforms were installed. The field's wells are completed in...

Oilfield pipe lays around a lot waiting to be used; it sits on sills on the ground, on pipe racks in the yard, in pipe bins and on pipe trailers on...standby. The longer it sits around the yard doing nothing, waiting for a job, the more likely it is that some living creature in the universe is going to consider it home. Birds build nests in pipe, rats will get in the deer corn stored in the shop, take it outside and store it a joint of tubing. Armadillos, possums, rabbits, squirrels, foxes...