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Gold/Mining/Energy : Strictly: Drilling and oil-field services -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robert Floyd who wrote (20943)	5/1/1998 12:06:00 AM
From: Douglas V. Fant	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 95453

Robert, You are right on the rattlesnakes! Since the oil/water production mix comes up out of the ground in the wellbore warm to hot, rattlesnakes in the spring and fall like to curl around the base of well heads to keep warm.... Look out when you bend over to check the stuffing box into which the pumping rod is seated- You might get a surprise down by your ankle!. Weird Fact #2. Oil of course comes to the surface mixed with ancient sea water which is trapped down in the rocky formations underground . A little oil/water always slushes out of the stuffing box/sucker rod and coats the well head with a dried oil/water mix- old seawater- very salty old seawater- and cows love to lick salt! Unfortunately eating oil gives cattle a bad case of diarrhea. Diarrhea causes dehydration in the animal, and in the warm climes you need to find the animal pretty quickly after sunrise and make sure it drinks plenty of water or it may die. So for that reason the first two things you check for when approaching an oil well in the American Southwest is for rattlesnakes wrapped around the wellhead; and for blackish shiny looking weepy cowpies, which suggest that the local cows have been partying and "lickin' the wellhead" once again during the night.... Just hope it wasn't a big ol' bull! Sincerely, Doug F.