The Great MisAdventures of David & JoEllen Laurita


Our Fulltime RV Adventures Across America With Toby The Cat

 

The Great Texas Gate Guard MisAdventure

Kenedy, Texas
~ Oil Field Work ~

February 29, 2012


Deep in the Heart of South Texas


Signs at the Gate

DRILL BABY, DRILL
Texans take these words to heart.

     Gate Guards R Us for a couple of months about 60 miles south of San Antonio near the town of Kenedy. Our job is to open the gate and track vehicles and personnal in and out, 24/7. The 5th wheel is set up next to the gate (about a 40 foot walk away) adjacent to the gravel drive leading to wellsite 2-H about one mile up the road. This position will pay us $125 per day, which is working out to about 50 cents for every gate opening so far. The company footing the bill for the well is Poloma Resources but we are contractors to Gate Guard Services. This is the first position we have taken as a contractor and not as an employee. Might be lots of tax benefits as almost everything is a deduction including travel and food.

     We arrived at this gate February 22nd after waiting a week for an opening. Getting our State of Texas Unarmed Security Guard licenses was a breeze. We met with the company manager in Corpus Christi, took a short test and had our fingerprints taken. The shooting range charged us $20 each for printing, and the state took another $56 each for license fees. Two sets of prints are taken, one to go to the State, and the other to the FBI. Guess the feds now have our prints on file. (Is that a good thing?)


JoEllen Hard at Work in her Fashionable Blaze Orange.

     After one week on the job, we now are seasoned veterans. The on the jobsite training consisted of receiving a clipboard and a hearty 'good luck' from our Gate Guard Services company man. Gate Guard Services does provide us with a 15kw diesel generator, 350 gallons of non-potable water, and a septic system, along with a driveway bell. Most of our time is spent reading, watching DirecTV, or banging on our laptops' keyboard. Long periods of boredom, followed by even more boredom. We do get busy at times, David checked in 18 trucks with large trailers loaded with sand for the fracing operation in 30 minutes.


Fracing Sand Truck Rush Hour


Trailer Mounted Septic System


Fuel, Water and Generator


Kraner B 1-H, Karnes County Texas

      Paloma has drilled and just finished one well here. This is the Kraner B lease, well 1-H is just up the hill a quarter mile. They are drilling into the Eagle Ford Shale formation located 9000 feet below us. Well 2-H is drilled and the Hydraulic Fracturing process has begun.

     Hydraulic fracturing is the use of fluid and material to create small fractures in a formation in order to stimulate production from new and existing oil and gas wells. This fracing creates paths that increase the rate at which fluids can be produced from the reservoir formations, in some cases by many hundreds of percent. For more information on fracing, visit the FracFocus.org website.


Aerial View of a Fracing Operation

     This picture is from the C & J Energy Services website. C&J is the company doing the fracing work under the direction of the engineers from Poloma Resources. The pad area here in Karnes County looks very similar to this photo.

     At well site 2-H, there are a large number of these trucks each with a huge Cummings powered water pump mounted on a flatbed trailer. A total of around 200,000 horsepower is used to pressurize the well and create the fracturing.

     Water is pumped from a pond located 3/4 mile away using 2 large pumps and 2 eight inch PVC pipes. You can see the crane in the background at the well head. The water is stored in these tanks at the site and used by the truck mounted pumps.

     The fracing sand is hauled to these funny looking trailers. Fracing sand holds open the fractures and allows the oil and gas to pass through to the well. These trailers somehow drop sand onto the conveyer belt to mix with the water and other chemicals for pumping into the well.

 

 

 

     The process above the ground ends here at the well head. There are additional trailers for monitoring also on site. There are wierd valve assemblies that seem to resemble flying saucers. Hoses and piping snake throughout the pad. Hundreds of roughnecks are busy doing whatever an oil field worker does. Hot shot managers stand around and look important. What a life. The fracing process is expected to go on at least 2 more weeks.


 

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David & JoEllen

Lord, let us live with joy in our hearts, knowing you will grant us strength and keep us safe in our travels.  Amen


Toby the Cat

Frredom - Be  A Workamper



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