Bedford Energy (BFDE)

[ChandlerBorn]

The program to which chaoslord refers was an episode on "Oil, Sweat, and Rigs" on the Discovery Channel. This particular one is more-or-less Part II of a previous episode in which this same drilling crew was in a race to hit a desired depth vs. a more high-tech rig and crew. Like the story of "The Tortoise and The Hare," slow and steady, albeit lower-tech, won the day.

Both these episodes are set in western Oklahoma, evidently somewhere within about an hour's drive of Elk City. I infer this because in the second episode, the crew was on a timetable to hit a specific depth within 48 hours, and, with time getting tight after all the problems chaoslord cited, the narrator mentions "the boss" was heading their way from Elk City and would be there in about an hour. I recorded both programs because they're great primers on what goes on at a drill site and I was also hoping to hear a drill site name. Although I might have missed it, I don't think I heard any of the sites mentioned by any name that could be used to query the Oklahoma databases as to exact location.

(As most know, the "East Chandler Field," which contains the Grace Wells, is in central Oklahoma, a couple hours' drive east from Elk City, and just a little east of Chandler.)

As to the comment about technology allowing deeper drilling: All well and true, but improved geological oil/gas-finding techniques, coupled with the higher price of oil and gas, have made exploration at shallower depths (5K-8K feet) more economically feasible, so some of the "dried up" fields are being revisited. For example, the "blowout" Grace #2 well was drilled within rock-throwing distance of a dry-hole well drilled over 70 years ago that was abandoned only a couple hundred feet shallower than the Grace #2, if my sources are correct.

Great resource about the oil industry from pipeline to pump:

"Oil On THe Brain," by Lisa Margonelli, Nan A. Telese /Doubleday, 2007. www.oilonthebrain.com, www.nanatelese.com