Page 34 - 4714

Ultimately, an Austrian mining engineer answered Higgins's
call. Named Anthony Lucas, the engineer visited Spindletop and
agreed with Higgins that the hill was a salt dome surrounded by
geologic formations that trapped oil and gas. After another frustrating
and costly failure, Lucas finally spudded (began drilling) a new well at
Spindletop on October 27,1900. He hired the Hamil brothers of
Corsicana, Texas to drill the well. Aware that the running quicksand
would cause trouble, the Hamils paid close attention to the mix of
their drilling fluid. Drilling fluid is a liquid or a gas concoction that,
when employed on the type of rig the Hamils used, goes down the
hole, picks up the rock cuttings made by the bit, and carries the
cuttings up to the surface for disposal. The type of rigs Drake and the
early California drillers used did not require drilling fluid, which, as
you will learn soon, all but doomed such rigs to extinction.
At Spindletop, the Hamils used water as a drilling fluid. They
hand dug a pit in the ground next to the rig, filled it with water, and
pumped the water into the well as they drilled it. The Hamils knew
from their earlier drilling experiences, however, that clear water alone
wouldn't do the job: they needed to muddy it up. They were aware that
the tiny solid particles of clay in the muddy water would stick to the
sides of the hole. The particles formed a thin, but strong sheath – wall
cake – on the sides of the hole, much like plaster on the walls of room.
The wall cake stabilized the sand and kept it from caving in. Legend
has it that the Hamils ran cattle through the earthen pit to stir up the
clay and muddy the water. Whatever they did to make mud, it worked
and they successfully drilled through the troublesome sand.
So it was that by January 1901 the new well reached about 1,000
feet (300 metres). On January 10, the drilling crew began lowering
a new bit to the bottom of the hole. Suddenly, drilling mud spewed
out of the well. A geyser of oil soon followed it. It gushed 200 feet
(60 metres) above the 60-foot-high (18-metre-high) derrick. As Lucas
watched the gusher from a safe distance, he estimated that it flowed at
least 2 million gallons (nearly 8,000 cubic metres) of oil per day. In

33