April 2015 Page 1

West Coast Driller

A Publication of the West Coast American Association of Drilling Engineers

P.O. Box 9953, Bakersfield, CA 93389

www.aade.org April 2015

Monthly Technical Forum

April 16th, 2015

Topic

Continuous Circulation

Drilling Technology

Time

5:30 PM Social Hour

6:30 PM Dinner

7 PM Technical Forum

Place

Rice Bowl

Cost

$25 if RSVP

RSVP

https://

www.123signup.com/

event?id=yrnkd

2015 Board of Directors

OFFICERS

President Steve Johnson E & B 616-6165

1st VP Craig Hossfeld CRC 428-4470

2ndVP Tom Shimura Chevron 316-9169

Treasurer Jason Mundorf SJ Bit 201-6704

Secretary Josh Kyles GeoGuidance 304-7577

CHAPTER REPRESENTATIVE

Danny Moreno Nalco 598-3163

The March 20th Golf Tournament at Sundale Country

Club was a wonderful success with nothing but sunny

skies and golfers in fine spirits. Thanks to all the partici-

pants and sponsors.

April's Monthly AADE Forum Meeting is to be

Thursday, April 16th. This month’s presentation will be

given by Adam Keith, Operations Engineer & Total Con-

trol Product Specialist for Canrig Drilling Technology,

Ltd. Mr. Keith will be presenting information on the exe-

cution of continuous circulation drilling technology along

with history of the technology, its applicability, benefits

and safety concerns.

Don't you just love springtime drilling in the Oil

From the President Patch? It is difficult to not be optimistic. I've been in-

terested in Mother Nature for some time now. I have

explained my fascination with Drilling Engineering to

non-engineers by explaining that Mother Nature has

wonderful riches, but she never gives them up easily.

Solving her riddles, while trying to exploit her petro-

leum resources through drilling, is always an interest-

ing challenge. It is enjoyable working in the upstream

side of the energy industry as the mysteries of Mother

Nature can be resolved with a thorough study and ap-

plication of physics and chemistry. I am not sure I

could survive a life in the mid- or down-stream seg-

ments of the energy industry since much of the focus

STEERING COMMITTEE Travis Adams Geo 325-5919

David Arias Kenai 304-0066

Danny Caraan Weir 303-8615

Jim Cessar Baker Hughes 699-3704

Brad Elliot Seneca 391-3545

Jim Fox Driltek 327-3021

Clayton Gossett CRC 477-3992

Chad Hoggard Patterson 203-5015

Fred Holmes Holmes Western 763-1537

Brian Krause SJ Bit 448-2074

Larry Lorenz Ensign 589-0111

Danny McCall Di Drill 345-3979

Trent Rosenlieb Linn Energy 616-3813

Wyatt Shipley Vaquero 444-0888

Tim Spriet Driltek 327-3021

Pat Sullivan Ensign 201-7722

Tim Zdarko Aera 665-5356

April 2015 Page 2

has little, to nothing, to do with the rational, hard sci-

ences. There are many questions that arise throughout

the activities of downstream experts that can only be

described as rationally unanswerable questions. Some,

not any less bewildering than, have the Easter Bunny

and Santa Claus ever met?

Of all the many things that have me wondering

why they are as they are, the one preventing me from

fully enjoying spring in Kern County Oil Patch this

spring is, why for as long as I have been filling my own

gas tanks (and that is since my first fill up of regular

cost $0.449/gallon) has the price differential between

the grades been fixed, more or less, at 10 cents per gal-

lon. Surely you can understand my bafflement and lack

of merriment with the answer to such an obviously

troubling question not being extensively-known com-

mon knowledge. There are times I find myself optimis-

tic when I remember there initially were but two grades

of gasoline; Ethyl and Regular. Alas, my optimism has,

as yet, always been unfounded as I have not discovered

any link to the introduction of unleaded to the explana-

tion of why the differential price between low

(regular), middle and high (ethyl) grade gasoline is es-

sentially always fixed at 10¢.

My frustration increased about ten years ago when

I started noticing the occasional Mobil station with

posted price differentials of 8¢ between unleaded-

regular and regular-super. Now, in California, as I was

observing all this, the ratings on the different fuels

were labeled as 87, 89 and 91 octane.

So, clearly the remaining, troubling, unanswered

question is why does the value for energy content of

higher octane fuel decrease as the price of gasoline in-

crease? Should the price of gasoline be proportional to

its energy content, would not the marginal cost,

and thus, the differential between fuel grades fluc-

tuate with the base price (energy content) of regu-

lar gas? Is it the exuberantly irrational individuals

of the marketing departments that create the condi-

tion of higher energy fuel (higher octane) being

more economical, or is there some other reason to

explain how marketing teams have been able to

pull one over on so many for so long. Is it that mar-

keters never understood Economics 101? Or could

it be that there is no fuel difference between octane

grades and the added dimes per gallon over the

many decades has been an outrageous, unjustifiable

windfall?

When burdened with a far-too-long commute

between Palm Desert and the Salton Sea south

shore, I was able to perform an experiment evaluat-

ing the correlation between fuel octane and miles

per gallon (or more important; dollars per mile).

The hypothesis to be tested was, “Is the marginal

cost of fuel proportional to cost of different fuel

grades?” As the price of gasoline increases, yet the

differential between grades remains constant, the

benefit of choosing ethyl, i.e. higher grade, over

regular (base octane) becomes more economically

savvy. Mathematically the issue is more prominent.

I am wondering when the gasoline marketers

will rationalize the gasoline grade price differential

to reflect the economic reality of marginal pump

pricing between high, medium & low octane rat-

ings.

I will leave it to the reader to determine at what

pump price the drivers of this fine land will most

easily be able to start eschewing regular for ethyl

April 2015 Page 3

gasoline.

With a combination of Junior High Algebra and Econ

101 it is straight forward to determine if any particu-

lar vehicle can be more economically operated using

ethyl or a lower octane fuel.

The individual experiments were conducted by

tracking the volume (gallons) to fill the gas tank for

each trip to the gas station and the odometer readings

between fill ups. The subject vehicle was a 2001

Mercury Marquis. I found that there were measurable

differences between the three octane grades in both

"city" & "highway" driving conditions. See nearby

graph. In the graph the straight lines indicate 15, 20

& 25 MPG. There was much more variation in

"city" driving conditions which made the evaluation

results less distinct. The mileage difference between

octane blends was much less than between highway

mileage (less than four stop/starts per 75 mile cruise

control segments) and city driving (more than 4

stop/starts per 10 mile random speed segments).

Steve Johnson

E&B Natural Resources Management Corp.

April 2015 Page 4

Guest Speaker: Adam Keith, Operations Engineer & Total

Control Product Specialist for Canrig Drilling Technology, Ltd.

Adam is the Operations Engineer & Product Specialist for the Total Control group at Canrig Drilling

Technology, Ltd. Starting with the company near the inception of the product line in June 2012,

Adam plays an integral part in the design, development, and direction of Canrig’s Total Control

services department including writing the operations manual for the Non-Stop Driller continuous

circulation system and providing engineering support to current operations around the world. He also

serves as Competency Assessor for the product line technicians and a Canrig Trainer for drilling

processes.

Adam holds a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University where he taught upper level

courses in Pressure Transient Testing Analysis/Well Performance and Petroleum Production Systems. He

also is a two-time recipient of the W. D. Von Gonten & Co. Scholarship and was third place winner of

the 2012 Student Paper Contest inspired by his time as a roughneck in South Texas.

Calendar Events 2015

4/16/2015 Technical Forum Meeting

5/21/2015 Technical Forum Meeting

5/22/2015 AADE Sporting Clay Shoot

6/18/2015 Technical Forum Meeting

7/16/2015 Technical Forum Meeting

*This schedule is tentative and subject to change*

April 2015 Page 5

Well let me just start by saying that I was born in Pharr, Texas in 1954 which might explain my

stubbornness, but my family was migrant farm workers and we came to stay in California when I was

about 3 yrs. old. My Dad took a job for a farmer which was developing a farm west of Blackwell’s

Corner right before going out of the valley. After a couple of years we moved outside of Buttonwillow

where I attended elementary school then graduated out of Shafter High School in 1973. With help

from my best friend and some of his brothers, 4 that worked at Daces & Witte (later became Witte

Enterprises) were able to convince Phil Witte and Bill Scurlock that I would be good man for the job.

It seemed in those days if you didn’t know someone that was willing to introduce you and take a little

responsibility it was pretty hard to get a job in the oil industry. Although I didn’t know that at the time

but this was the beginning of my oilfield career. I started on a work over rig and then production rig I

quickly realized I liked work over a whole lot better, but in time I learn to do both. I got set up to an

operator a couple of years later, at that time I really enjoyed the work over jobs, we at Witte worked

for many of the small operators and most of the majors, drilling/re-drills/fracing/acidizing no jobs to

big or small it was and always will be a learning experience.

Then one day out of necessity they needed a tool-pusher and again I was at the right place at

the right time. I began doing a lot of the work-over jobs for Union Oil Co. In 1979 Witte Enterp.

bought a brand new 250K Hopper Rig that at that time was one of the biggest in the state, it opened up

the deep well market for us. Mr. Witte and Mr. Scurlock spent a lot of money and time on us and

equipment developing this rig. High pressure deep wells became a trademark for our little company for

years we were a thorn in the side of all the big service companies in this area. We got our jobs not with

cheap rates but with good work Mr. Witte believed in that and our superintend believed in good work

for good wages so it balanced out. Somewhere around 1980 I met a gentleman by the name of Jack

Cook, well I guess he liked my work which started a friendship and business relation that is still going

on. He used our rig and me for most of the work he and his people did in the central valley. In 1981 he

had me take my rig to the Tulare Lake Bottom, working 24/7 for 5 yrs. With him and his personal. I

don’t think I’ll ever forgive him for that. But life went on, I continued watching rigs until March of

1998, at that time my wife and I started Oilwell Consultant Svc. Oh, yes somewhere along the way I

got married and raised 3-kids. Back to the oilfield, I worked for many of the independent oil producers

and few of the majors. Then about 5 years ago I started working with Mr. Cook again as a well site

consultant. These last few years have been pretty wild but it’s all been good. I still enjoy the oil busi-

ness so I guess you’re stuck with me for a while longer.

Oh, my family. I married Janet in 1982 that had 2 children Trin and Brandie and in 1983 we

had a little girl Ashley. All our kids and families live here in Bakersfield, our oldest son is an A/C

specialist and our older daughter a housewife, our youngest took a different path. Ashley Bylow now,

graduated from San Jose State with a degree in Environmental Science and works for Enviro-Tech

here in town.

Thank You for allowing me to write this…Baldemar”K.C.”Torres.

LMOTM: KC Torres (Ollwell Consultant SVC)

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Congrats to Tubular Inspection!!

Get your recipes ready for next

year!!!!

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$25.00