Although you may not realize it, you are a very interesting storyteller in a way in which even someone who has no previous knowledge can learn alot from you !
learning for when I start get oil out of my wells in new Mexico and Oklahoma, I hope soon at some point lol nice thanks , Zack how could I get the oil people a drillers to start pumping they say the have been forced to stop 🛑 the process of getting started acquiring the angle drill sites they are going to be drilling from two miles out down to the pool and there is a ton of people that are in the down stream royalty of the operation lol thanks BigAl California
Yea. You explain well and concise and deliberate explanation. I like machinery and mechanical stuff. Not experience or ever been around oil field stuff but just found you last week and like your videos. Also that your not afraid to show other stuff besides what it seems your main content is.
Great comment. I guess you could say he very relatable as a story teller. I do need point out somewhat common spelling error. The word "alot" is incorrect. The correct way is: "a lot." One of my OCD things, sorry. God bless!
Driving across the country and seeing those oil wells pumping along the freeway I always wondered how they actually worked and processed oil. I just learned more about oil wells than I ever thought I would know. Thanks for the vid.
Funny how few people recognize how handy a gin pole can be. Amazing what you can lift and move with one if you can appropriately manage a sketchy sketch setup. You hardly ever see them anymore. Simple, cheap, useful for all kinds of stuff if you understand leverage. You can walk a house with one if you need to. Old feller by the name of Archimedes once said; “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. ” Well I copied that quote but that aint what he said, he didnt speak English. Neither do I, but that dont stop me from tryin. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure English was yet invented in his day. I have freaked people out with a 10' 4x4 oak beam and a concrete block. A buddy was coming to the house and I was going to move a 62 Chevy Chieftan pickup, I think it was a 230 straight 6 in it. So I set up a lever. When my buddy got there I asked him to help me move that truck. Sure he says. He thought I was gonna roll it back but I told him to lift up on the bumper. He grabbed on and I pried the front end plumb off the ground with that lever. You shoulda seen the look on his face! LOL You literally could lift the front end, both wheels off the ground with one pinky finger. I have a knack for leverage cause dad started me real young thinking about what you can do with ropes and beams if you understand leverage. I had a 100 foot rope tied off to a telephone pole and drug the ass end of an 85 Sentra straight sideways across asphalt just by walking in to the middle of the rope until I got enough angle that I ran out of leverage. Even if you get out a napkin and a pencil to draw out some pictures and math, they cant believe their eyes. Nobody thinks that way anymore, just wanna go grab a machine and let Caterpillar and diesel fuel do all the thinkin.The one I still cant wrap my head around is how many yards it takes to fill a ditch. Cant be right, figure it again........
My Dad worked for Haliburton in Michigan back in the early 80's so i grew up hearing stories of stuff out on drill /well sites. Your videos help to bring visuel to those stories. Keep them coming, your an awesome story teller/ teacher.
I really enjoy your videos. They’re interesting I’ve never worked in the oil fields. But I’ve been around a lot of different types of industry and you do a great job of describing what’s going on and it’s not hard to pick up on the dermatology. I also appreciate that your language is real clean, not vulgar. Thanks great job
Zach your livelihood is amazing to me! I'm a gearhead and have worked on cars and small engines 25 of my 40 years of life. Up here in the northern midwest oil isnt a thing. I wish it was! I can't think of a better livelihood than fixing, maintaining, and running oil wells! What an amazing family legacy you have! Wish I could apprentice a guy like you to learn the trade.
I had an Army buddy who lived in Tyler Texas who had a well that was drilled and maintained by a company. He had no knowledge of how the well worked, other than when it pumped it pumped money. Thanks for explaining how the well worked. I ride in Michigan and they have some of these pumps where we ride. Now I know how they work. Also, my Wife's Grandpa, who lived (he is now dead) in Ky also had a well and they used the gas to heat with and cook. They used to use coal, which was also strip mined off his land. The whole area went from dirt poor and heating and cooking with coal (dug by hand from a coal seam) to relative wealth and heating and cooking with gas.
@@covenantoftheark2924 it's way more than those 2 around Tyler! Use to be a LONG list of operators there! XTO was one of the majors but give it a few years it will be a new list with new names. The always changing oilfield! Last time I worked there was over 13 years ago.
Watching the light diffract through that gas boiling out of the tank was something else. I learned a bit today. Always good to find out something new. Thanks man!
Extremely interesting. One thinks he understands a system, only to find out there are several more layers of complexity to it. Thanks. Well explained (no pun intended).
Watching you hang the rods on the hanger bar without the door and come all the way off with the winch line gave me anxiety lol but there’s more than one way to skin a cat lol
Really enjoyed this and the one with the 100 year old well. Grew up in the Rangely oil patch in the 1960's. While not affiliated with the industry directly, I have aways loved the old pumpjacks and still enjoy being shown how they work and how it all fits together. Oil not only "smells like money" to me, it smells like home.
Strangely interesting, and quite mesmerising. I know there's a lot of these small wells all over the place, and yet when people talk of oilfields, I instantly think of the big pump jacks covering thousands of acres, and yet, these little machines still turn out worthwhile amounts of oil. Good luck, and God willing there'll always be a market for oil.
Domestic oil pumping receives a lot of very favorable tax incentives, deductions, or direct financial assistance. Up to $10B in the current budget. Otherwise we'd be paying $3 a litre like in western Europe.
I really love the simplicity in oil production down there! Here in Frostbackistan a winch truck is a half million dollars and it take ten of them, four bed trucks and two million dollar pickers to move a rig across the yard.
Sorry, to answer your question. Yes. Most of the gas wells produced more than a barrel of light crude a day. I suppose when you're drilling down three or four thousand meters it's a bit more of a production haha.
Depending on how much electricity your pump eats I’d think about making a electronic controller that would stop the well for a day and start back up for 2-3 so you get a bit more profit and less water.
Zach man your content is fantastic. I had a brief career on little single drilling rig in Drayton Valley, Alberta for about a year before the price of oil dropped and I decided to go into a trade. Ever since I'm always on the lookout for anything about the history of oilfields and oilfield equipment, the basics of how oil wells work and the nuts and bolts of the production process. Your channel is a gold mine and it wouldn't be half as good if you didn't have a great clear way of explaining things. First of all it should be required viewing for any oilfield green hand, seriously lol. Furthermore, I'd recommend that anyone working in any mechanical trade watch this stuff in order to pick up those little tips and tricks when it comes to pulling equipment apart, machining tolerances and other generalities like even a bit of old school safety wisdom. I hope you keep up with the channel, and just remember no matter how boring a little job feels when you're working on the lease there's probably lots of us who'd be interested to learn about it. Thanks!
I retired from the Oil industry and move away from it. The best job I had was operating a water injection field. We had winch truck and we’ll service rig. Thanks for making these videos. I sure do enjoy watching them.
I liked your spark plug story! I work quarries that have been in my family on my father’s side for six generations. I find metal “treasures “ that are from the ancestors. The junk or treasures make my day when I find their old tools, broken or just lost
Zach I really appreciate your videos. I’m new to being an operator. With no previous knowledge of the way things are with the RRC and everything else that goes with it. I’m learning from you. Every little thing you teach is very helpful to me. I’m also in Texas. Thank you for taking the time to teach what you do. I would love to work with you and be able to ask first hand advise. I need an oil field worker friend with lots of experience that is honest. I have met lots of people who just want to take advantage of every situation. I have some old wells that produce and some inactive wells. Stay safe.
Awesome video. I been pumping a 64 year old well in Kimball county NE for the last 15 years that consistently makes 10 bopd but what I think is really cool is that, not only does it make a consistent 10 barrels every day, but in it's 64 years in total, it's made 1.7 million barrels. Good ole girl. Not too many good ole girls like the one you have, and like mine!
Had three gas wells in the medina formation in western New York, the shut in pressure was 900 psi. We used a bullet perforator to pierce the casing. Not much oil but each well was good for 20K cubic feet per month. If you pushed the well you'd get up to 40k, but you would get salt water intrusion. Low and slow bro. This was before Albany declared a moratorium on fracking. Apparently they don't know it gets cold in the southern tier south of Buffalo. Wouldn't even let us use our own mineral rights to keep from freezing to death without a hassle.
i don't know anything about oil wells except what i have learned from your fantastic videos so far, and actually, that's getting to be much more than i thought. I am the first person in my last 2 generations of family to actually be self employed, everyone else works for a paycheck and cannot understand, or won't understand, the lifestyle commitment that I feel this is. Thanks for videoing some of your activities and perspectives. I was thinking maybe a remote for the winch? It is another point of failure and more complexity in the machinery for sure, but perhaps it can make it more efficient when you are working on the pumps.
I'm an old driller on spudders Zach, broke out on an "H" Cardwell truck mounted on an old Dowell frack truck back when they ran the Allison aircraft engines, talk about shake the ground with 2 setting side by side and us up on the 210 tanks making sure one didn't run dry before the other, 25 Walkaneers too and one old Cooper,,,,, Good times!!!! Great presentation spot on, wished I could remember all the pays (zones) names, Tar springs warsaw salem devonion oxvasis McCloskey,,,,,,,
Borrowed phone. I painted tank batteries , worked at a internal coatings plant. Watched a paint crew make it snow tx in august. 4 tanks, equip, trees the ground rudolfs right antler had White tip.
Found your channel yesterday Zach. Been binge watching since. Great videos explaining the basics of oil and gas production . My west Texas oil career 1980 to 2015 was drilling services. Shallow 2000 ft to 29000 ft wells. They are all basically the same process. Your real time production teaches me a lot about completion and producing oil. Thanks for taking us along. I miss the oil patch small and big.
Great video Zach. Nothing requires so much thought and planning as working in the oil field by yourself. I'm certain the house nearby appreciates the polish rod lube box. Many times I see and hear a pump without one. Keeps the rubbers lasting much longer, but helps keep it quiet. Great to hear about this old legacy well. Build a frame for that spark plug your dad or his dad changed. If that could talk.........
Really enjoy your videos. Worked as a roustabout in west Texas during summers in the 70’s. Helped me pay for school. More importantly, I learned how to work hard (for a roustabout), respect others and turn a wrench.
I once worked as an operator in one of the oldest fields in the Gulf Coast off of the Mississipi River that still had about 250 wells still operating out of around 1200. Some of the wells I operated were drilled in the late 20s and early 30s and were still producing. I reopened a well one time that had been shut-in or over 30 years and it had over 3,600 psi on the tubing. After making sure the flowline was still in good enough shape the well produced 72 barrels and 10 bbls water per day on a 12/64ths choke with 1.270 psi of flowing tubing pressure. If they didn't mess with the well it's probably still flowing. What generally happens is you get some engineer who wants to start messing with what you have by opening the choke and it ends up pulling water in and killing the well. I have had that happen so many times I couldn't tell you. You go from not producing anything and stabilizing a flow rate that makes them money every day to screwing up what they have. It was always a constant source of stupidity that I became really disheartened about helping them out. I believe I was able to get around 32 wells flowing and producing every day but I digress. Good video.
Grew up in the oilfields in Kansas. I went to work in it right outta high school. I worked on the subsurface pumps for like 3 years repairing them. Tubing and rod pumps. So I get most of your talk about here brother. Lol 👍
Thanks for the explanation. Growing up in Minnesota, I always speculated on how these worked. This explains why those pump jacks sometimes are shut off. Cool video
Hey Zach; greetings from Colombia. Very interesting your videos; really enjoy your explanations even with my basic English; but you make it easy and I gotta say there's a lot of useful information and you show details which normally the People don't talk about in the middle of dayly tasks....Thanks a lot Zach. I already suscribed to your channel
Good explanation. I'm a geologist and chased drilling rigs all over the Permian Basin. Thanks, the general public thinks oil is in an underground lake and all you have to do is put a straw in it. It does smell like money. Thanks for the memories..
I spent most of my life on the refined side of oil. I did one winter get roped into pumping raw black oil at the well for a week or two. That gas burp in the tank is one of the scariest things I’ve ever had happen to me in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere
Bro!! I don't think people understand how dangerous starting this well up actually is. Volatile at ambient temperatures and atmospheric pressures are explosive on surface, especially in the summer. I was in the oilfield for 30+ years and can relate to all that you're explaining. An open tank of this wellbore fluid has the possibilities of being catastrophic with the gas vapors boiling off. The violent actions of a soft flowline, moving gas at surface, can cause issues. I'm sure this would be fun to watch from a distance and be on pins and needles trying to manage the start-up. Your explanation of the process is on point. Really loved this video...
My grandfather from Electra, Tx had a well like that. My father got like a $20 royalty check maybe once every so many years or at least did .I don't know anymore. But from the stories I can remember they had maybe 2 wells still running from the 50's I was just old enough to remember seeing them in the early 80's . I went to work for Boots & Coots Special Services (International Well Control) in 95 till they sold out to Halliburton in 2000. Not once did I even mess with a single well. I was contracted working on Union Pacific Property.
Zack you missed your calling. Teacher I'd say. You have excellent videos. I spent 33 years in natural gas distribution welder twelve of those years. Now I'm learning the first phase of where natural gas comes from
This is cool man...I grew up in the Ohio Valley and my family had some 1800's wells that were in the Big Engine sand. I spent alot of time with my grandfather pumping brine and finally we would get some good olive green gold lol. And, all the family had wonderful, free, natural gas. Pap-pap piped all the family on the hill into those wells.
Treat... your oil well.. That's all I got. Try this -- go for a jog and burn carbohydrates, but go for a drive and burn hydrocarbons. Coincidence? Maybe... Excellent video, thanks for sharing.
Friendly advice from 50 years in the oilpatch? Need to flip your hook on your winchline, should always be open side down. Cable pulling into the closed side of the hook, or you could indeed lose something you'd rather keep. Like your old hotrod truck. My Dad worked for Sinclair waay back there, I spent a fair amount of time as a kid riding in a Ford winch truck. Used to pilfer salt tablets out the dispenser next to the water can.
It is amazing. Worked on Spindletop TX field which still produced oil more than 100 years. There are also working wells and fields in Ohio and WV that are very old (100+ years).
GREAT "hands on" video ...... THANKS ! Love hearing how "regular folks" keep us going, even at 2 bbls a day ! Best of luck to a "salt of the earth feller" doin his thing in the oil patch ! Keep up the good work and best of luck to ya !!
Recently found your channel and absolutely loving it. I live in NW PA and only 15 minutes away from Titusville, PA which is home to the first commercial oil well. Drake Well was drilled in 1859 to a depth of 69.5ft and produced oil to 1861 at a rate of 12 to 20 barrels per day. Also not far from me is McClintock Well No.1 which is the world's oldest continually producing well. The well was drilled by the Kickdown method using nothing but leg power to a depth of 620ft back in 1861. It produced 175 barrels a day up to 1920 and is now only producing half a barrel a day.
Having spent a year working for an oilman at Hays, Kansas, in 1978-79, I am somewhat acquainted with the process. In February 1979, we had a tubing part on one of the wells so we had to fish it. When it dropped, the tubing corkscrewed so pulling was an ordeal but we persevered.
My grandpa always talked about how he used to go out with his dad as a kid and help him on the oil lease. He had lots of cool stories he’s told me. But seeing it in persons pretty cool since I never had the chance to go out and do anything like that. I believe the leases we have are in the same part of Texas as you are just by looking at the brush and stuff
@@TheZachLife I subbed, which makes your day no doubt. Retired Okie landman here, so I enjoyed the two vids I watched. You're pretty darned handy when in proximity to a pumpjack. 😁
Wow, Zach...awsome video!! I enjoyed every minute of this. Brings back so many memories of my grandfather and father's wells here in SW Indiana. I remember checking the tanks and hearing the oil splashing and echoing into the tank battery. Oh to only smell that raw crude again, absolutely love it!! On hot summer nights you can smell the gas in the air from the surrounding wells and tank batteries here. Many wells around here in the Illinois Basin still flare off the gas, really neat to see them glow in the night sky. Back in the 70s I loved spending time checking the wells and just taking in the mechanics of it all. Thanks for sharing your excellent knowledge, your passion for your work sure shows in your videos. I still drive around looking at the wells around here and over in White County, Illinois across the Wabash River. There is nothing like the oil fields. I can't get enough of your oil field videos, keep them coming please!! PS LOVE your winch truck.
Mr Zach .....PLEASE get yourself a CPL rod elevators and short lift subs to keep on your truck for whenever you're hanging one on (ESPECIALLY when you're all by yourself!).
Just discovered your channel.....always fascinated by pump jacks since little kid (born in Port Arthur).....then played o & g game starting in early 1980's (Ada, Ok)....then sneaked into deals with Houston insiders...via local friend ensconced in River Oaks crowd......first well near Kirbyville...then on to Damon, Alvin, etc., etc.....probably 15 wells over 20 years....mostly SE Tx area. Read many books on geology and oil biz...was hooked bad......with juicy free flowing 'gushers' to inevitable dry holes.....playing the game was my goal.....a wild ride.....love hearing history of wells and details of their quirky production, etc. This well is in interesting location surrounded by trees and brush....but in sweet spot..still making oil after 70 years......thanks for sharing....btw, any interesting prospects in your area?
That well is a year or so younger than me, and it's still kickin' butt. I, on the other hand have long since seen the end of my butt-kickin' days! Great video, Zach!
Although you may not realize it, you are a very interesting storyteller in a way in which even someone who has no previous knowledge can learn alot from you !
Thank you.
@@TheZachLife I second that. Your awesome.
learning for when I start get oil out of my wells in new Mexico and Oklahoma, I hope soon at some point lol nice thanks , Zack how could I get the oil people a drillers to start pumping they say the have been forced to stop 🛑 the process of getting started acquiring the angle drill sites they are going to be drilling from two miles out down to the pool and there is a ton of people that are in the down stream royalty of the operation lol thanks BigAl California
Yea. You explain well and concise and deliberate explanation. I like machinery and mechanical stuff. Not experience or ever been around oil field stuff but just found you last week and like your videos. Also that your not afraid to show other stuff besides what it seems your main content is.
Great comment. I guess you could say he very relatable as a story teller. I do need point out somewhat common spelling error. The word "alot" is incorrect. The correct way is: "a lot." One of my OCD things, sorry. God bless!
Ur videos make me miss the oil patch so much. Retirement sucks
This video is great because it shows real world work, and that is rare in today's virtual online world.
Driving across the country and seeing those oil wells pumping along the freeway I always wondered how they actually worked and processed oil. I just learned more about oil wells than I ever thought I would know. Thanks for the vid.
It is complex - oil in ground. Dig hole in ground. Pump oil up. Pipe into in tank.
The boiling propane and then the huge spree of barrels it makes was such an interesting story. Science meets engineering meets economics.
No one in this world can defeat a man with a box full of tools who knows how to use them.
And a pickup truck. Don't forget the pickup truck - preferable Ford.
Enjoy watching your videos. Brings back the 60's and 70's in the old oil patch. You are doing a good job of explaining how things work.
Funny how few people recognize how handy a gin pole can be. Amazing what you can lift and move with one if you can appropriately manage a sketchy sketch setup. You hardly ever see them anymore. Simple, cheap, useful for all kinds of stuff if you understand leverage. You can walk a house with one if you need to.
Old feller by the name of Archimedes once said; “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. ” Well I copied that quote but that aint what he said, he didnt speak English. Neither do I, but that dont stop me from tryin. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure English was yet invented in his day. I have freaked people out with a 10' 4x4 oak beam and a concrete block. A buddy was coming to the house and I was going to move a 62 Chevy Chieftan pickup, I think it was a 230 straight 6 in it. So I set up a lever. When my buddy got there I asked him to help me move that truck. Sure he says. He thought I was gonna roll it back but I told him to lift up on the bumper. He grabbed on and I pried the front end plumb off the ground with that lever. You shoulda seen the look on his face! LOL You literally could lift the front end, both wheels off the ground with one pinky finger. I have a knack for leverage cause dad started me real young thinking about what you can do with ropes and beams if you understand leverage. I had a 100 foot rope tied off to a telephone pole and drug the ass end of an 85 Sentra straight sideways across asphalt just by walking in to the middle of the rope until I got enough angle that I ran out of leverage.
Even if you get out a napkin and a pencil to draw out some pictures and math, they cant believe their eyes. Nobody thinks that way anymore, just wanna go grab a machine and let Caterpillar and diesel fuel do all the thinkin.The one I still cant wrap my head around is how many yards it takes to fill a ditch. Cant be right, figure it again........
You explained that very well. That is the first time I ever saw oil that came out of the ground.
My Dad worked for Haliburton in Michigan back in the early 80's so i grew up hearing stories of stuff out on drill /well sites. Your videos help to bring visuel to those stories. Keep them coming, your an awesome story teller/ teacher.
Thanks.
I really enjoy your videos. They’re interesting I’ve never worked in the oil fields. But I’ve been around a lot of different types of industry and you do a great job of describing what’s going on and it’s not hard to pick up on the dermatology. I also appreciate that your language is real clean, not vulgar. Thanks great job
Thanks.
Zach your livelihood is amazing to me! I'm a gearhead and have worked on cars and small engines 25 of my 40 years of life. Up here in the northern midwest oil isnt a thing. I wish it was! I can't think of a better livelihood than fixing, maintaining, and running oil wells! What an amazing family legacy you have! Wish I could apprentice a guy like you to learn the trade.
I had an Army buddy who lived in Tyler Texas who had a well that was drilled and maintained by a company. He had no knowledge of how the well worked, other than when it pumped it pumped money. Thanks for explaining how the well worked. I ride in Michigan and they have some of these pumps where we ride. Now I know how they work. Also, my Wife's Grandpa, who lived (he is now dead) in Ky also had a well and they used the gas to heat with and cook. They used to use coal, which was also strip mined off his land. The whole area went from dirt poor and heating and cooking with coal (dug by hand from a coal seam) to relative wealth and heating and cooking with gas.
It's probably maintained by BASA or maybe Vess. I Used to work on the pumps in the area.
@@covenantoftheark2924 it's way more than those 2 around Tyler! Use to be a LONG list of operators there! XTO was one of the majors but give it a few years it will be a new list with new names. The always changing oilfield! Last time I worked there was over 13 years ago.
I have never worked on a oil well or even been very close to one but you made learning all about it very interesting.
Watching the light diffract through that gas boiling out of the tank was something else. I learned a bit today. Always good to find out something new. Thanks man!
Extremely interesting. One thinks he understands a system, only to find out there are several more layers of complexity to it. Thanks. Well explained (no pun intended).
Haha Thanks
Watching you hang the rods on the hanger bar without the door and come all the way off with the winch line gave me anxiety lol but there’s more than one way to skin a cat lol
First time I've ever intuitively understood all those old film movie clips of wells turning into geysers of oil.
Really enjoyed this and the one with the 100 year old well. Grew up in the Rangely oil patch in the 1960's. While not affiliated with the industry directly, I have aways loved the old pumpjacks and still enjoy being shown how they work and how it all fits together. Oil not only "smells like money" to me, it smells like home.
Strangely interesting, and quite mesmerising. I know there's a lot of these small wells all over the place, and yet when people talk of oilfields, I instantly think of the big pump jacks covering thousands of acres, and yet, these little machines still turn out worthwhile amounts of oil.
Good luck, and God willing there'll always be a market for oil.
Domestic oil pumping receives a lot of very favorable tax incentives, deductions, or direct financial assistance. Up to $10B in the current budget. Otherwise we'd be paying $3 a litre like in western Europe.
I really love the simplicity in oil production down there! Here in Frostbackistan a winch truck is a half million dollars and it take ten of them, four bed trucks and two million dollar pickers to move a rig across the yard.
I bet your wells produce more than 1/2 barrel a day I'd bet.
@@lciummo1 the 15 years I spent in the patch we drilled for gas. North east Alberta had lots of old oil production.
@@danielgratz7611 I clarified my original comment, which was not understandable due to typos.
Sorry, to answer your question. Yes. Most of the gas wells produced more than a barrel of light crude a day. I suppose when you're drilling down three or four thousand meters it's a bit more of a production haha.
I’ve drilled in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and the Arctic so I feel your Frostministan my friend.
Depending on how much electricity your pump eats I’d think about making a electronic controller that would stop the well for a day and start back up for 2-3 so you get a bit more profit and less water.
That sorta what i do. I just manually turn it off and on.
Zach man your content is fantastic. I had a brief career on little single drilling rig in Drayton Valley, Alberta for about a year before the price of oil dropped and I decided to go into a trade. Ever since I'm always on the lookout for anything about the history of oilfields and oilfield equipment, the basics of how oil wells work and the nuts and bolts of the production process. Your channel is a gold mine and it wouldn't be half as good if you didn't have a great clear way of explaining things. First of all it should be required viewing for any oilfield green hand, seriously lol. Furthermore, I'd recommend that anyone working in any mechanical trade watch this stuff in order to pick up those little tips and tricks when it comes to pulling equipment apart, machining tolerances and other generalities like even a bit of old school safety wisdom. I hope you keep up with the channel, and just remember no matter how boring a little job feels when you're working on the lease there's probably lots of us who'd be interested to learn about it. Thanks!
Thanks.
I retired from the Oil industry and move away from it. The best job I had was operating a water injection field. We had winch truck and we’ll service rig. Thanks for making these videos. I sure do enjoy watching them.
Lmao!!! I haven't heard the term "educated guess" since my grandfather from years ago!!! Thank you for the reminder
Hey thanks. I’m in Andover Ohio for the eclipse. Saw wells everywhere and needed to learn what they are all about. Now I know. Thank you.
Awesome Thanks for watching.
"smells like money"
Never truer words!
Watching this makes me miss my old pumping and roustabout days.
I liked your spark plug story! I work quarries that have been in my family on my father’s side for six generations. I find metal “treasures “ that are from the ancestors. The junk or treasures make my day when I find their old tools, broken or just lost
Zach I really appreciate your videos. I’m new to being an operator. With no previous knowledge of the way things are with the RRC and everything else that goes with it. I’m learning from you. Every little thing you teach is very helpful to me. I’m also in Texas. Thank you for taking the time to teach what you do. I would love to work with you and be able to ask first hand advise. I need an oil field worker friend with lots of experience that is honest. I have met lots of people who just want to take advantage of every situation. I have some old wells that produce and some inactive wells. Stay safe.
Awesome video. I been pumping a 64 year old well in Kimball county NE for the last 15 years that consistently makes 10 bopd but what I think is really cool is that, not only does it make a consistent 10 barrels every day, but in it's 64 years in total, it's made 1.7 million barrels. Good ole girl. Not too many good ole girls like the one you have, and like mine!
I agree, some of these old wells are amazing.
@@TheZachLife So approximately how much $$ is 10 barrels a day
Perty neat as he dropped back where it was....I guess 👍👍👍👍
You have an exceptional ability to explain while keeping our attention. You would make great speeches or lectures.
Had three gas wells in the medina formation in western New York, the shut in pressure was 900 psi. We used a bullet perforator to pierce the casing. Not much oil but each well was good for 20K cubic feet per month. If you pushed the well you'd get up to 40k, but you would get salt water intrusion. Low and slow bro. This was before Albany declared a moratorium on fracking. Apparently they don't know it gets cold in the southern tier south of Buffalo. Wouldn't even let us use our own mineral rights to keep from freezing to death without a hassle.
i don't know anything about oil wells except what i have learned from your fantastic videos so far, and actually, that's getting to be much more than i thought. I am the first person in my last 2 generations of family to actually be self employed, everyone else works for a paycheck and cannot understand, or won't understand, the lifestyle commitment that I feel this is. Thanks for videoing some of your activities and perspectives.
I was thinking maybe a remote for the winch? It is another point of failure and more complexity in the machinery for sure, but perhaps it can make it more efficient when you are working on the pumps.
Thanks.
I'm an old driller on spudders Zach, broke out on an "H" Cardwell truck mounted on an old Dowell frack truck back when they ran the Allison aircraft engines, talk about shake the ground with 2 setting side by side and us up on the 210 tanks making sure one didn't run dry before the other, 25 Walkaneers too and one old Cooper,,,,, Good times!!!! Great presentation spot on, wished I could remember all the pays (zones) names, Tar springs warsaw salem devonion oxvasis McCloskey,,,,,,,
We have the exact pump jack setup in the oilfields of Trinidad and Tobago. It's nice to see similar setups in other countries like the USA
Enjoyed your interesting commentary always ready to learn about the ins and outs of drilling and maintaining oil wells. Thanks again.
Thanks.
Borrowed phone.
I painted tank batteries , worked at a internal coatings plant. Watched a paint crew make it snow tx in august. 4 tanks, equip, trees the ground rudolfs right antler had White tip.
Found your channel yesterday Zach. Been binge watching since. Great videos explaining the basics of oil and gas production . My west Texas oil career 1980 to 2015 was drilling services. Shallow 2000 ft to 29000 ft wells. They are all basically the same process. Your real time production teaches me a lot about completion and producing oil. Thanks for taking us along. I miss the oil patch small and big.
Great video Zach. Nothing requires so much thought and planning as working in the oil field by yourself.
I'm certain the house nearby appreciates the polish rod lube box. Many times I see and hear a pump without one. Keeps the rubbers lasting much longer, but helps keep it quiet.
Great to hear about this old legacy well. Build a frame for that spark plug your dad or his dad changed. If that could talk.........
How true that is. I agree I may have to hold onto that plug.
Really enjoy your videos. Worked as a roustabout in west Texas during summers in the 70’s. Helped me pay for school. More importantly, I learned how to work hard (for a roustabout), respect others and turn a wrench.
U are interesting to listen to, I have always wondered how the oil rigs and pumps work. Very neat that u can work on something ur granddad had too.
You are the man Zach! I have learned so much from your videos. It's like I'm there with you. I would love to hang with you on the job for a day.
I want a jar of that just to smell of every once in a while.
Haha
@@TheZachLife could be a merch idea.
Smells like ...victory !
good old Detroit baby so wild to see that well kicking like that.
WOW !! ... most entertaining and informative ... thank you and please keep these conversations coming our way ...
Best explanation I’ve ever heard.
I once worked as an operator in one of the oldest fields in the Gulf Coast off of the Mississipi River that still had about 250 wells still operating out of around 1200. Some of the wells I operated were drilled in the late 20s and early 30s and were still producing. I reopened a well one time that had been shut-in or over 30 years and it had over 3,600 psi on the tubing. After making sure the flowline was still in good enough shape the well produced 72 barrels and 10 bbls water per day on a 12/64ths choke with 1.270 psi of flowing tubing pressure. If they didn't mess with the well it's probably still flowing. What generally happens is you get some engineer who wants to start messing with what you have by opening the choke and it ends up pulling water in and killing the well. I have had that happen so many times I couldn't tell you. You go from not producing anything and stabilizing a flow rate that makes them money every day to screwing up what they have. It was always a constant source of stupidity that I became really disheartened about helping them out. I believe I was able to get around 32 wells flowing and producing every day but I digress. Good video.
Thats amazing.
Grew up in the oilfields in Kansas. I went to work in it right outta high school. I worked on the subsurface pumps for like 3 years repairing them. Tubing and rod pumps. So I get most of your talk about here brother. Lol 👍
Reminds me of riding with my uncle who was a pumper for a company in Oklahoma. I always liked riding with him and 'helping.'
Every time my grandad smelled oil as we drove around west Texas, he would remark “I smell money”.
Bro my respect for this man talks very well salute brotha 💪💯🖤🛢️ shout out from Aurora Chicago IL
Thanks.
I work in deep water completions but it is really cool to hear how other types of wells work around the world.
We need more of these wells and more oil and gas refineries built in America.
I agree - right next to that coal-fired electric plant in Merrimac. It's time NH lives up to its motto.
Thanks for the explanation. Growing up in Minnesota, I always speculated on how these worked. This explains why those pump jacks sometimes are shut off. Cool video
Hey Zach; greetings from Colombia. Very interesting your videos; really enjoy your explanations even with my basic English; but you make it easy and I gotta say there's a lot of useful information and you show details which normally the People don't talk about in the middle of dayly tasks....Thanks a lot Zach. I already suscribed to your channel
Very cool explanation. Thanks for taking the time. Love the old 12 valve
No idea how the youtube algorithm got me here but I can't stop watching your videos. Very cool stuff
Hahaha Thanks for watching.
Zach gonna start capping wells if he get too successful on line - then he'll be an influencer full time and he can retire his tool set.
Good explanation. I'm a geologist and chased drilling rigs all over the Permian Basin. Thanks, the general public thinks oil is in an underground lake and all you have to do is put a straw in it. It does smell like money. Thanks for the memories..
I spent most of my life on the refined side of oil. I did one winter get roped into pumping raw black oil at the well for a week or two. That gas burp in the tank is one of the scariest things I’ve ever had happen to me in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere
Yeah, excellent storyteller, no bullshit.
Cool stuff Jack!
Thanks for the video Zach. Larry
Bro!! I don't think people understand how dangerous starting this well up actually is. Volatile at ambient temperatures and atmospheric pressures are explosive on surface, especially in the summer. I was in the oilfield for 30+ years and can relate to all that you're explaining. An open tank of this wellbore fluid has the possibilities of being catastrophic with the gas vapors boiling off. The violent actions of a soft flowline, moving gas at surface, can cause issues. I'm sure this would be fun to watch from a distance and be on pins and needles trying to manage the start-up. Your explanation of the process is on point. Really loved this video...
Thanks.
My grandfather from Electra, Tx had a well like that. My father got like a $20 royalty check maybe once every so many years or at least did .I don't know anymore. But from the stories I can remember they had maybe 2 wells still running from the 50's I was just old enough to remember seeing them in the early 80's .
I went to work for Boots & Coots Special Services (International Well Control) in 95 till they sold out to Halliburton in 2000. Not once did I even mess with a single well. I was contracted working on Union Pacific Property.
It's great you've carved out a living doing this, I thought this was all done by huge outfits - this is good to see.
Great video. Thanks for sharing
Truck sounds great!
Zack you missed your calling. Teacher I'd say. You have excellent videos. I spent 33 years in natural gas distribution welder twelve of those years. Now I'm learning the first phase of where natural gas comes from
Great explanation of how gas reacts to loosing pressure
This is cool man...I grew up in the Ohio Valley and my family had some 1800's wells that were in the Big Engine sand. I spent alot of time with my grandfather pumping brine and finally we would get some good olive green gold lol. And, all the family had wonderful, free, natural gas. Pap-pap piped all the family on the hill into those wells.
I'm shocked and fascinated at the same time, thanks for sharing this with us!
Very interesting video. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.
Treat... your oil well.. That's all I got. Try this -- go for a jog and burn carbohydrates, but go for a drive and burn hydrocarbons. Coincidence? Maybe... Excellent video, thanks for sharing.
Haha thanks.
Friendly advice from 50 years in the oilpatch? Need to flip your hook on your winchline, should always be open side down. Cable pulling into the closed side of the hook, or you could indeed lose something you'd rather keep.
Like your old hotrod truck. My Dad worked for Sinclair waay back there, I spent a fair amount of time as a kid riding in a Ford winch truck. Used to pilfer salt tablets out the dispenser next to the water can.
It is amazing. Worked on Spindletop TX field which still produced oil more than 100 years. There are also working wells and fields in Ohio and WV that are very old (100+ years).
The oil patch...the only job I ever loved to hate.
Really interesting videos Zach. Thanks for taking the time to do them for all of youtube.
Thanks
That thar is black gold, Texas tea!! First thing you know ole Zach's a millionaire!
Hahaha
@@TheZachLife You're gonna start capping wells if you become a successful RUclipsr! An "oil well influence".
My dad had a pole truck he built back in the early 80's. It had only one seat and I'd stand up in the cab to see over the dash.
Zach is a damn good American, it’s my favorite channel. Great knowledgeable video.
Haha Thank you.
GREAT "hands on" video ...... THANKS ! Love hearing how "regular folks" keep us going, even at 2 bbls a day ! Best of luck to a "salt of the earth feller" doin his thing in the oil patch ! Keep up the good work and best of luck to ya !!
Thanks.
great story telling.
Great info, best well description I've seen
I was about to tell you how much I liked your winch truck but then I saw the homemade RV you built.
I think that's going to be my favorite.
Hahaha.
Recently found your channel and absolutely loving it. I live in NW PA and only 15 minutes away from Titusville, PA which is home to the first commercial oil well. Drake Well was drilled in 1859 to a depth of 69.5ft and produced oil to 1861 at a rate of 12 to 20 barrels per day.
Also not far from me is McClintock Well No.1 which is the world's oldest continually producing well. The well was drilled by the Kickdown method using nothing but leg power to a depth of 620ft back in 1861. It produced 175 barrels a day up to 1920 and is now only producing half a barrel a day.
I'm from Mercer Pa.
Having spent a year working for an oilman at Hays, Kansas, in 1978-79, I am somewhat acquainted with the process. In February 1979, we had a tubing part on one of the wells so we had to fish it. When it dropped, the tubing corkscrewed so pulling was an ordeal but we persevered.
My grandpa always talked about how he used to go out with his dad as a kid and help him on the oil lease. He had lots of cool stories he’s told me. But seeing it in persons pretty cool since I never had the chance to go out and do anything like that. I believe the leases we have are in the same part of Texas as you are just by looking at the brush and stuff
Love the popcorn ceiling! Based on that alone, I'd date your house build date between 1974 and 1982.
1959.
@@TheZachLife Somebody did some remodeling in 1975 and sprayed it on the ceiling, trust me on that one! 🙂
@@wapiti3750 Thats likely
@@TheZachLife I subbed, which makes your day no doubt. Retired Okie landman here, so I enjoyed the two vids I watched. You're pretty darned handy when in proximity to a pumpjack. 😁
I think this is great! Flipping old house's one thing...flipping old wells is another.$$$$
Wow, Zach...awsome video!! I enjoyed every minute of this. Brings back so many memories of my grandfather and father's wells here in SW Indiana. I remember checking the tanks and hearing the oil splashing and echoing into the tank battery. Oh to only smell that raw crude again, absolutely love it!! On hot summer nights you can smell the gas in the air from the surrounding wells and tank batteries here. Many wells around here in the Illinois Basin still flare off the gas, really neat to see them glow in the night sky. Back in the 70s I loved spending time checking the wells and just taking in the mechanics of it all. Thanks for sharing your excellent knowledge, your passion for your work sure shows in your videos. I still drive around looking at the wells around here and over in White County, Illinois across the Wabash River. There is nothing like the oil fields. I can't get enough of your oil field videos, keep them coming please!! PS LOVE your winch truck.
I'll do it. Thanks.
Working for Lufkin in the late '80s, I drove and operated a 330" wheel bace Autocar gin pole truck.
Great video. Thanks for sharing.
"Smells Ike money...". Lol, I love it!
God bless Texas!
Mr Zach .....PLEASE get yourself a CPL rod elevators and short lift subs to keep on your truck for whenever you're hanging one on (ESPECIALLY when you're all by yourself!).
Very cool! Works like a air lift pump in water.
Roll that coal Zach! Love your videos. Up here in Canada our oil is like tar when it comes to surface.
Ive heard that. Ive got one lease that make a gear oil like oil but everything else is pretty light.
BAD ASS truck... Plus the 5.9 cummins! Love it..
Just discovered your channel.....always fascinated by pump jacks since little kid (born in Port Arthur).....then played o & g game starting in early 1980's (Ada, Ok)....then sneaked into deals with Houston insiders...via local friend ensconced in River Oaks crowd......first well near Kirbyville...then on to Damon, Alvin, etc., etc.....probably 15 wells over 20 years....mostly SE Tx area. Read many books on geology and oil biz...was hooked bad......with juicy free flowing 'gushers' to inevitable dry holes.....playing the game was my goal.....a wild ride.....love hearing history of wells and details of their quirky production, etc. This well is in interesting location surrounded by trees and brush....but in sweet spot..still making oil after 70 years......thanks for sharing....btw, any interesting prospects in your area?
Thanks for watching. There some shallow drilling but not as much as used to be. Theres not much left around here but junk.
That well is a year or so younger than me, and it's still kickin' butt. I, on the other hand have long since seen the end of my butt-kickin' days! Great video, Zach!
Hahaha Thanks.