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SCIENTIFIC STOOL PIGEONS  by J. D. Mountain                5

drillers, unable to obtain land favorably located on an oil structure get leases as close as possible, then by using whipstocks or other means try to direct their holes into the oil sand.

A valuable oil field extension which might never have been discovered but for oil well survey gave more than a million barrels of oil.  The old field was thought to be poducing from the entire area of the formation, but surveys of the producing wells showed a different form of the oil bearing structure than had been supposed.  Geologists plotted the new position of the boundary of the field from information obtained by these surveys.  A test well drilled into [[strikethrough]] xxxxx [[/strikethrough]] this area became a good producer.  Nearly all the wells drilled in this area "made oil".

The amount of weight on the bit is the most important factor in keeping a hole straight.  Before the invention of some of the new indicating instruments, the driller had to judge the pressure of the bit on the bottom by the drag on the engines.  Now a dial constantly before his gaze tells him more accurately than he could every guess the exact weight on the bit.  Besides this, a recording instrument connected to the system makes a continuous record of the weight.  This record gives an accurate picture of conditions in the bottom of the well at the time of a twist-off or other accident.  Hence its name "stool pigeon".

Slowing down of drilling because of more careful adjustment of weight on the bit has resulted in wells being finished better an cheaper and even more quickly than every before.  The president of a large oil company says "We surveyed the discovery well in an important oil structure and then surveyed each well drilled.  All wells showed large amounts of drift.  Underground contours of the oil sand could not have been determined without