Wildcat Byplay

or, The Gingham Geologist and the Calico Engineer

By Bill Borgsteadt, Humble Oil & Refining, Corpus Christi, Tx. circ. 1963

Said the geologist to the engineer,

My very dear friend, I sadly fear,

Though we're not prone to gripe or snipe,

I think there is no cement behind pipe.

But see here, this volumetric table,

To understand, if you are able,

This hole requires 200 sacks,

And we have displaced the max.

So said the brilliant engineer,

The facts as plainly seen are here,

So you know you hadn't oughter

State positively it couldn't make water.

Hold on now! what silly fable,

Do you event from that simple table,

If technical data is what you'll heed,

Here is all we'll ever need,

We have Induction-Sonic calculation,

And sidewall core analyzation,

With perm and good porosity and saturation percents,

What more could you ask for evidence?

So we'll block squeeze and use a slurry,

Wait 24 hours, there'll be no hurry,

We'll run a cement bond log, temp. survey too,

For a "concrete" answer to satisfy you.

A fault trap structure its plain to see

And even the seismic boys, they agree,

The sand is there, as you have seen,

Certain production is ALL it could mean.

What's that, 'ol Scout ! and ink spot here?

An offset well you sadly fear?

Made oil it did, 100,000 barrels?

Another one of the geologic perils,

Our work was true, sad twist of fate,

We found this field, again...just too late!

Pencil Art by Owen Garrett

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This wonderful poem expounds on the age 'ol rift between geologist and engineer, something along the lines of the saying, Reverse Fault, Growth Fault, Engineer's Fault. Here the geologist, confident in his maps and evaluation of the well, can't explain why its making water...so he is blaming the engineering department for not getting any cement behind pipe. After some banter it appears the engineer has discovered an offset well nearby that has made 100,000 BO and drained the area causing the water production...an actual blunder by the geologist. His brand new discovery had actually already been discovered.

"Byplay" is defined by Webster as a noun meaning, secondary or subsidiary action or involvement in a play or movie.