I’ve put in allot of wells in that area, you can still find dummy bombs from time to time. The old CONOCO lease had a bunch of them outside their office.
Sounds familiar. Some things about the old Permian Basin of the early to late 70s, when I was there, I miss. It was a time of activity but still a time of the more-or-less “old oilfield”. Three footage wells were considered no problem for one foreman to keep up with. Even though they were all at least 50 miles apart the morning reports were all expected to be picked up and called in by not later than 0600. We had just closed the Monahans office where all the drilling of Hailey, Evetts and Gomez gas fields had been managed from and moved the drilling group to Midland. The last company rig had been lost in a blowout. Big gas wells all the way down to the Ellenberger.
Drilled a well near Pyote and had a drilling foreman who would try to take a walk in the evening for his health. He would keep to the middle of the lease road but ended his walks when a big rattler stuck his head up from between the pipe on the cattle guard. He was the same guy who rolled a pickup off the road in Wyoming I believe in a snow storm. He survived but it took a bit to find him.
Good times, great memories and stories. I used to look at the Conoco lease south of Big Spring with envy. All painted nice and roads in good repair. Ours was a poverty operation by comparison. All of our money went to the emerging offshore work off Louisiana back when a 400’ platform was really deep water. My last wells were in 10,000’ of water and I consulted on projects in 12,000’ off Brazil.
You know how every good oilfield story begins? You also know who tells the best one in a bull session?