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oilfield terms, that's about 50,000 barrels of oil per day. (One barrel
of oil equals 42 U.S. gallons.) That's a lot of oil.
Thus, Spindletop's first claim to fame was that it flowed
absolutely unheard of amounts of oil. Before Spindletop, a big
producer flowed 2,000 barrels (320 cubic metres) per day. The
Lucas well produced 25 times that amount. Spindletop's second
claim to fame was that it showed the effectiveness of a type of rig,
which, before Spindletop, drillers had not used much.
The Hamil's equipment was a rotary drilling rig, most drillers
used cable-tool rigs. Unlike cable-tool rigs, rotary rigs require drilling
fluid to operate, and particles in the drilling fluid prevent formations
from caving. The Lucas well showed that rotary rigs could drill wells
that cable-tool rigs could not. Consequently, oilwell drillers began
using rotary rigs more than cable-tool rigs. Today, almost all wells
are drilled with rotary rigs. Because rotary rigs are so dominant, and
because cable-tool rigs drilled a lot of wells before being supplanted by
rotaries, let's find out more about them.

4 Find synonyms in the text for the following words.

air poisoned
a game a gap
wax a ground
to advocate abundant
a supplement to arrive
a spring

5 Find antonyms in the text for the following words.
a surrender top of the hole
polluted to release
to extinguish soft
to rise to destroy

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