In the oil patch with Rig #3

By Katherine Stokes

It takes a special breed to do this work. You

are in the elements ALL THE TIME. Whether

it’s too hot, too cold, snowing, raining, windy,

dust blowing and the noise…..the noise is

constant even with ear protection. The work

is physically grueling and you have to be on

your toes because things don’t stop. They may

slow down a bit here and there but from the

time these guys rig up until they break down

to move off location; it’s all about getting it

done.

The crew on Rig #3 at Silver Oak Drilling are

aware of all these factors and are prepared for

anything….or just about anything. I’m sure the

day started out like any other day on the drill

site but what they weren’t expecting were two

charter buses to pull up on location and 75

women disembark with hard hats on, ear &

eye protection ready. We are a smaller group

of over 200 women that have signed up for

one of the education field trips offered at the

Association of Desk & Derrick Clubs —Region

V meeting taking place in Artesia, N.M. this

week. One poor soul looks at his boss with

that deer in the headlights look and seems to

ask without saying a word at all, “Boss, is it too

late to call in sick?” The available men gather

round the buses (no not that kind of

available). These are the guys that were hand

picked to be our tour guides. Some of them

may have thought it was punishment for a

previous infraction and others are just hoping

they get a quiet group.

They split us up into groups of 10 and we are

introduced to our guide, Mr. Larry Ivy, Silver

Oak’s Procurement Officer. If Larry thought he

would be one of the lucky one’s and get a

quiet group; he is fresh out of luck. First, he

gives us the layout of the drill site, points out

the rally points set up on all four sides of the

drill site and what to do in case of emergency.

As we start out it’s cool outside and we are

dressed for the cool weather but by the end of

the tour we’ve experienced a dust storm and

the sun pops out to heat things up enough

that everyone has taken off their jackets.

He starts us on the outside of the drill location

and works us around the site clockwise

explaining the need for and use of the parts

house, generator house, tanks, pumps, the

mud house and we watch as the mud and

water run underfoot in the pits as we walk on

the grating above. Now this isn’t a nice little

conversation one has while sitting in an office.

Questions and answers are yelled loudly in

order to be heard over the generators, pumps,

shale shaker and drilling rig. We are allowed to

walk the length of the pits over the grated

walk way to the shale shaker as cuttings and

fluid flow back out of the hole and separate

into tanks. Silver Oak is all about recycling,

reusing and reducing their footprint on their

drill locations.

We make our way down and around to the

west side of the location where we watch as

the crew sets up to make drill pipe

connections. While watching Larry tells us

he’s been in the industry for 20+ years and can

remember when you could show up on a drill

location in cut offs, boots, a t-shirt and ball cap

for work. Gone are those days. Its all fire

retardant personal protective equipment (FR-

PPE), regular safety meetings and always

listening to the equipment and the sounds the

well makes for any tell-tale signs of trouble.

We watch as the guys pull the assembly out of

the hole and slips are set around the drilled

joint. With precision, the tongs separate the

Kelly from the drilled joint and the rotary table

is turned to the right to spin off the drill string.

The Kelly is then transferred to the joint in the

mouse hole and connected using the Kelly

spinner. They use the tongs to tighten that,

pull the assembly out of the mouse hole and

the added joint is made up to the drill string

sitting in the slips. After a lot of chain slinging,

pushing, pulling and tightening; the connec-

tion is made and the drill string is run into the

hole and the Kelly bushings are set in the rota-

ry table. There is so much more to the process

than written here and you can tell this is a

good crew because their movements are fluid

and everything hums along. When connec-

tions are made and drilling gets going again

we each get to head to the top dog house

and have a look around, talk with the guys and

monitor what’s going on in the hole watching

Everyone makes their way back to the office

area where the buses are parked

only to find that the grill has been

set-up, hamburgers, sausages and

the works are laid out. The lunch

line is ready to get started. Mr.

Eddie La Rue, Operations Man-

ager for Silver Oaks, gathers eve-

ryone around, says the blessing

and everyone sits down to a

pretty good rig side bar-b-q.

Eddie has been involved in the

oilfield industry since 1973.

Before it was called Silver Oaks

Drilling, C.E. La Rue had built his

30+ year career working in the

area’s oil and gas industry. Be-

fore it was Silver Oak it was

known as L&M Drilling. As the

story goes the elder La Rue and

Mr. Chase joined forces and trying

to decide what to call the new

company while sitting around the

table one night drinking a bottle of “Silver

Oak” wine. For a minute, I thought Eddie La

Rue was surely pulling my leg. I was assured

that is the story and only those individuals

sitting around the table that night know for

sure.

Some of the wives of the Rig #3 crew were

along on the field trip and it is apparent this is

a family and as one of the wives said regarding

Silver Oak ownership, “treats its employees

right”. Silver Oak doesn’t just take care of its

employees. Following the Chase family, Mr.

Robert Chase and those at Silver Oak know the

importance of providing educational

opportunities to improve the quality of life for

Artesia’s youth and future genera-

tions. Since 2007 the Chase

Foundation has awarded 900 scholar-

ships to Artesia High School gradu-

ates worth a total of $9.5 million in

funding.

Any way you slice it; this company, its

employees and those in the

community of Artesia work hard and

showed us a day in their lives while

providing for the future.