A new life for Spindletop
BEAUMONT — Hard-hatted roughnecks returned to Spindletop this week, aiming to make another historic strike on the storied grounds.
“This is one of the best Christmas presents I have ever had, getting this well spudded on the 22nd of December,” said Bud Tippens, a landman who has worked on the Southeast Texas project since 1999.
“Spudding” a well means getting it started, and under crystal-blue skies on Monday the sprawling worksite was teeming with workers and heavy equipment. Trucks ferried in tanks of drilling mud and flatbeds full of pipe. Long sections of that pipe were connected together and fitted into the freshly drilled well hole, as mud splashed up from below.
Once that pipe reaches 10,000 feet, probably around the third week of January, a team of geologists will arrive to begin analyzing the findings to see if there really are deep undiscovered pockets of oil and gas at the Spindletop dome, site of the huge discovery in 1901 that transformed the oil industry and American life.
More at http://fuelfix.com/beaumont/2013/12/26/a-new-life-for-spindletop-photos/ .
