Comments on: Wildcatters!

By: chuck

chuck — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 14:58:32 +0000

I watched two episodes. The first was some guys drilling shallow wells in the mid continent or Illinois Basin, looked plausible and interesting. It came on again in Malaysia so I watched a second programme. This one was about a guy drilling in central Texas for a Pennsylvanian Limestone, another in Alaska, and a third in the Sac Basin in California. This was pretty disgusting because I could not believe it was real. First, the guy in Texas got lost and used a tool that I thought the last had gone to the museum in 1950 in order to survey the hole. He pronounced himself lost and quit, which would be patently ridiculous, to quit near the target because the oil is not structurally controlled in that area. If this really occurred, then it was a scam to oversell the well and be sure it was a dry hole if you had sold, say 130% of the well.
The guy in Alaska, from his ranch in Kansas, pronounced himself rich based on what he said was the chromatograph going off the scale. A chromatograph cant go off scale, it reads percentages of gas components. He announced the ammount of reserves in the well which would be impossible, without sustained testing, and they werent enough to develop in Alaska. There are a lot of 100 million barrel fields in Alaska which have certified, by SPE standards, which cannot be developed. And nobody would get terribly rich from a small discovery under Alaskan Laws which demand a very high royalty to the state.
The Sac valley might have been plausible assuming that he was dumber than dirt, to drill a well in such a structurally complex area without any control. There are such people.
I did wonder if the Discovery channel is promoting people with well known scams, ie oversubscribing a well and being sure it is dry.

By: Kendra

Kendra — Wed, 07 May 2008 04:34:32 +0000

I am also a wife of a Roughneck and have been trying to find show schedules and channel – I just seen one preview and didn’t get info. – If someone could let me know when its on I would greatly appreciate it!

By: Jenn

Jenn — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 08:06:39 +0000

Ashley,,,
this is my addy please e-mail me, newme314@hotmail.com

By: ashley

ashley — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 02:01:33 +0000

we’ve only been able to watch episode 4. i can’t find the schedule for it on discovery.com. my husband is Adam, the toolpusher for justiss oil on the show. we don’t know when it comes on again. i’d sure like to know so we can record it if anybody here can let me know! thanks!

By: Jenn

Jenn — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 02:49:07 +0000

No you are not the only one who watches Wildcatters. I am a very proud “PatchWife” and i love this show. To me the “patch” is a wonderful place to be. True, it does hold a lot of danger for the men that work in it. I am married to a hard working roughneck. He has busted his ass on both drilling rigs and pulling units as well. I always find myself thinknig back to the first time i was requested to go out to the rig by his toolpusher and I was amazed by the beauty of the sight of the rig at sunset. That is why I love the show.