after World War II that cement also added

strength to the casing and protected it from

corrosion.15
The efficiency of the cementing operation
was confirmed in the early years if no water
showed in the borehole. Later, hardness
became a test as well, and where cement
corcs showed weakness, it was concluded that
the cement had been contaminated in some
way. In rotary rigs it therefore became a
practice to keep mud and cement apart, and to
flush out the hole before cementing. As wells
went deeper, a cementing job was successful
if it had a slow setting time and did not
Figure 5.5 An earlv Four Wheel Drive cement truck (probably Halliburton!

harden while ii was coming out of the pipe. 1'1

in Turner Valley. late twenties or early thirties. The men on the left feed the bagged concur into the hopper

All the same, unsuitable oil well cements and

and it is earned up to the truck mounted mixer. One line on the rieht brings in the water lor mixing the

sloppy cementing techniques were used, and

cement while the other takes the cement slurry and forces it downhole. The mixer on the truck is steam

they both caused problems.

powered. Photo courtesy of (lie (lenbou Archives. NA-4614-21.

affiliated rigs which had to carry out the work on the lease entirely l>v
hand.1'

CEMENTING THE HOLE

Another regular though less frequent procedure was cementing, and it
was practised on both cable tool and rotary drilled holes. Cementing is
the means still used to separate oil and gas producing horizons from
each other and from water bearing strata, and to anchor the casing in the
hole. If cement were not used to secure the casing tightly in the hole,
and a strong flow of oil or gas were to enter the annulus when the crew
closed the well at the top. the casing would come shooting out of the
hole into the derrick or mast This would constitute a blowout. Moreover,
it is necessary' to cemcnt the casing solid to anchor the rig's valves,
control head, and/or blowout prevention equipment when drilling is
taking place. In addition to these two early uses, it was discovered after
World War II that cement also added strength to the casing and protected
it from corrosion. Sometimes this unwelcome water came from the formation which contained the oil. but more often the source was an upper
sand formation.14
Oilwell cementing was introduced to deal with these problems, and ii
became the process of placing a cement slurry in the annular space, the
area between a string of casing and the open borehole. Once set, the
cement bonded the metal casing to the rock formation and made the hole
stable for the drilling tools- Cementing is the means still used to anchor
the casing in the hole while separating oil and gas producing horizons
from each other and from water bearing strata. If cement was not used to
secure the casing tightly in the hole and a strong flow of oil or gas was
to enter the annulus, hen the crew closed the well at the top the casing
would come shooting out of the rig floor, constituting a blowout. The
casing must be solid to anchor the rigs valves, control head, and blowout
prevention equipment when drilling is taking place. It was discovered
ROUGHNECKS. ROCK BITS AND RIGS

Figure 5.6 \ group of interested onlookers watch as the ccmcnt bags stored at the tight are taken down and cut open prior to being led into the truck
mounted mixer. Inch then sent the mixture dow nhole. Photo courtesy of
The introduction of cement to deal with a down- hole problem began

bottom Hap was opened, permitting the ccmcnt to fill the casing and

in California in 1903 at a Union Oil well site when, in order to stop a

How and part-way up the annulus.* This involved many trips, and while

flow of water into the hole, a company employee took matters into his

one load of ccmcnt was going down another was being mixed. When the

own hands. I lc dumped fifty bags of cement down the hole by means of

area was full, a plug (at first wooden and later rubber) was inserted into

a bailer of his own design, and then set the casing down into this

the hole and driven all the way down the casing into the still wet cement

mixture to the bottom of the hole. After twenty-eight days, the cement

under pressure from a column of water. The plug, which fit snugly inside

inside the casing was drilled out and the hole was takeninto the oil sands

of the casing, forced the cement back toward the surface by way of the

without any further water seepage. Cementing casing quickly beca me

annulus. The ccmcnt, now lodged in the annulus between the formation

an accepted practico in other California fields having water problems, 1

and the casing, was allowed to set for about fourteen days. After the

and the technique became standard practice in Alberta in cases of water

cement had cured, the bit was sent down to pound out the plug and any

intrusion or borehole cave-ins.

excess ccmcnt blocking the casing. 1'' so that drilling could resumed" Vic

In the first few years, before World War ! and in some cases into ihc

Timmins rccalls cementing an Imperial well at Bruderheim in the 1950s

early 1920s, casing ccmcnt was hand-mixed on the lease. It was dumped

that took an uncommonly high 250 cement plugs because there was a

from the cloth sacks into a four-by-eight-by-one-foot wood mortar box.

need for a fast setup in a lost circulation area.- 1 This far exceeded the

Water was mixed in with mortar hoes and the slurry was then shovelled

norm in the Alberta fields.

into the open hole. It was forced down the casing by a steam hose until
the desired areas were l>clieved to have been filled.

One problem facing the eatlv cementing crews as they put in their
plugs was trying to determine where the plug was in relation to the

A dump bailer soon supplemented the gravity mcihod of placing the

bottom of the hole In 1926, American, E. Paul Halliburton introduced

ccmcnt. First the hole was completely filled with water. Next the dump

the vvell sounding device." a piece of clothesline ire which went

bailer was filled with ccmcnt and lowered down the casing until it

through a stuffing box to measure the depth of the upper plug during its

reached the bottom of the hole. Once there, the

travel down the casing. This prototype was followed by a use of a plowsteel w ire and a measuring wheel with a counter. Well into the 1930s, I
lalliburton only leased the model out
the Provnicial Archives of Albctta. P I707.
to those who did their own cementing.*' In later years other
companies'4 copied the idea.
The manual method of mixing cement was inadequate for deep
holes. In 1922, the Halliburton Jet Mixer" appeared just as the limit
had been reached for hand mixing and manual insertion of cement into
the annulus. This machine could mix and put large quantities of ccmcnt
down the hole in a short period of time. Its success led to by K. Paul
Halliburtons I924 formation of Halliburton Oil Well Cementing. The
Jet Mixer*' consisted of not much more than a ccmcnt hopper, a water
inlet, a mixing chambcr, and a discharge spout conncctcd to che
borehole via a powerful Cement pump. Other cementing specialty

equipment companies were formed about the same time and they

cementing. hr>t attempted in the I'nitcd States in 1934, involved the

proceeded to develop well-cementing techniques and machinery for the

rapid pumping of a great deal of ccmcnt down the hole. ' The American

American and foreign oilfields.*'' Cementing took two forms. Primary

drillers were convinced that those wells with the most cement pumped

cementing involved cementing the casing into place inside the hole.

into the formation under the highest pressure had the highest chance of

Secondary cementing was most often "squeeze cementing,'' a technique

success in cutting off any seepage of unwanted gas or ater into the

designed to seal off water or gas formations from the hole. Squeeze

hole. The equipment was

Ch*pt*r Fiva THE STANDARD CAB LE TOOL RIG. SPUDDING-IN CEREMONIES

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*
3

Figure 5.7 These men on n rocarv rig in Turney Volley h i the 19,50 arc making rcsdv for cementing. The iwivel at the right ha licen placed in the
rat hole while the hole i* prepared. Mere the Kelly hose is being connected to the ccmcnt head, ot ccinent rcccivcr. u Inch M ill direct it downhole.
Note the lack of safety equipment of anv kind and the me of the bands and plank to support one of the men a he tightens rhc ccinent head and the
kellv hose. Photo courtesy of the Provincial Archives of Albert j. P 1984.
eleven men was kept busy emptying bags of ccmcnt into the

much heavier rhan that used to carry out primary cementing because it

mixer connected to the cement pump borrowed from the Royalire

had to deliver a cement slurry at a higher pressure than had ever before

Company. After 35 minutes... it was decided that the well was

been required.

properly ccmcntcd, as the cement had been forced all the way

Cementing was also used to control blowouts. I leavy mud slurries

around the 4 3/4 inch casing and part way up the six-inch

were pumped into the well followed by ccmcnt under high pressure.-''

casing... When the drilling is resumed on Monday there will be

When a blowout made it impossible to pump anything ill, a directional

17 feet of cement to be drilled out of the bottom of the casing.

hole had to be drilled so that it met the bottom of the wild well, an act

Therefore by Tuesday at the latest the drill will IK- pounding its

requiring great skill. Heavy mud and cement were pumped in via the

way down through the new hole.'1

directional well in order to bring the blowout under control.

Scenes such as this at Illinois-.Albert a #1, when the casing was
being cemented into place, became com- monplacc in Turner Valley in
the days before the ccmcnc trucks with their attached mixers made their
first appearance:

This cementing job may have been a success, but lllinois-Albcrta *1 was
a dry hole that was abandoned on March I, 1927.
Ccmcnt trucks arrived in the Valiev in late 1926. The first in Canada
was the HOWCO (llall Oil Well Co.) truck. It had a gasoline engine and

For seven hours the crew forced water into the casing tinder
enormous pressure in Order to start circulation clown the 4 3/4
inch casing and up again between it and the six-inch. \ gang of

on its bed were mounted two steam-driven pumps, hence the nickname
IIOWCO Two Pumper. In 1939 a Three Pumper Steamer" appeared.
-1

When the ccmcnter arrived, the rig had to supply it w ith clean water

ROUGHNECKS. ROCK BITS AND RIGS

which had been trucked in and placed in a tank, a dugout. or was on

lease from either Calgary or Okotoks. When the ccmcnter arrived at the

standby in a water truck ;; This pattern was to persist into the future. The

lease, the men from the rig had to do rhc manual labour.w

rig also had to supply the necessary labour, and in the days before the

In the years that followed, cementing trucks began to appear in

bulk ccmcnt trucks with their mixers and their <dry)ccmcnt tank, this

various sizes and designs, depending upon the type of operation. The

involved a good deal of muscle power Before the bulk cement trucks

deeper wells in Alberta required high volume, high pressure pumps:

appeared in the late 1940s, the rig crew had to unload it from the rail

shallow wells,or surface casing, might call for only low pressure

cars left at the nearest siding," or in the case of fields like Turner Valley,

equipment. As the 1950s drew to a close, high-pressure pumps could

where there was no rail head, from the trucks which brought it out to the

deliver ccmcnt at 12,000 psi I hcv had

ES A

0 l ..ili IV A* 09:56 p.m.

Figure 5.8 A Dowell cementing unit operating it

Koyalite well in the

Figure 5.9 The Dowell cement truck from behind. The mixer is driven by

Redwarer Field, about 1949. The two men arc opening (lie cement bags w itli a

a diesel engine. The derrick floor is held up by a substructure consisting

(able mounted saw for loading the mixer <m the back of the cement truck.

of heavy (irnbers and K is just a few feet off of the ground. The rat hole

Photo courtesy of the Provincial Archives of Albert*. P 2093.

and swivel ate clear. Lighting consists of naked bulbs suspended over the

catwalk. In the background is a tig's diesel supply, possibly a store house

of some kind, and probably the doghouse.
The pile of brush on the left is the result of clearing the site for drilling.
Photo courtesy of the Provincial Archives of Alberta. P 2092.

their own power source anti were

cement was arriving in paper

topping 300 hp by I960. Cement

bags; then came the sack cutting

slurries continued to be mixed

table where the bags could be

through some variation of the

pulled overa knife or saw blade

original jet mixer at a rate of ten

arrangement (like a tabic saw) to

to forty sacks of cemcnt per

rip them open next to the cement

minute. '1 The measured sack

hopper. When George

disappeared but the term persisted

Tosh liecamc a roughncck in

In its place was bulk cement,

1936, cloth bags were still in use,

which arrived in enclosed hopper

and once empty, they made very

cars at the bulk cement plant of

good shirts which would last a

the service company, most often

lifetime."' Roughnecks were re-

Halliburton

lieved when, after 1948,* the

or

Dowell

Inc.,

another American firm. Various

lirst

additives were blended with the

ccmenters arrived at their leases,

cement, as was necessary for the

and the cementing crews no

specific job relative to thickening

longer required extra hands to

times, setting times, and strength.

open the bags or to mix the

" B\ the late 1960s, a wide range

cement.

of additives' such as retarders.

accelerators,

bulk

Paul I lallibtirton built a shop

(to

in Naphtha in 1929, which he

prevent water loss), heavyweight

later moved into the toss n of

additives, lightweight additives,

Turner Valley. With two other

extenders (for greater yields), and

Americans. Boots Byers and

bridging materials (for zones of

"Shorty" Smith, he brought the

lost circulation) could lie used to

most

tailor the cement's behaviour to

technology with him when he

the conditions of virtually any

came co Canada. In the mid-

hole. ''

1950s his company introduced

Originally,

dispersants

self-contained

up-to-date

cementing

all

the squeeze cementing technique,

Portlandccmcnrcamc in 87.5-lb.

and began using the high-pressure

cloth bags tied with wire They

pumps, connected to and fed by

were difficult to handle. By 1940.

high volume cement mixers. This

equipment facilitated the forcing

services to the oil companies

of

operating

cement

down

to

greater

in

the

Valley.42

depths.-" Soon he was joined by

Royalite. however, brought in its

Dowell, and l>cforc long, the two

own equipment and. whenever

firms were offering cementing,

possible,

acidizing, and drill stem testing

Turner Valley wells.

cemented

its

own

Chp(*r Fio THE STAND ARD CA8LE TOOL KIG. SPUDDINC-IN

CEREMONIES

*
*5

ES A

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