Oilfield Spies?

[sewen]

Came across a guy camped out in the gateway of a quarter section we own. He was spying on a oil rig a mile and half away. He said he didn't even know who he was working for.

Was just wondering if anyone knows who he might be working for and what he would be looking for?

Sounds like the secret service could recruit agents from the oilpatch.

[cowman]

Ahhhhhhhh, the old oilfield scouts !!! Obviously the hole he was spying on is a tight hole and he is trying to gain information for somebody that is paying him or else he is getting info to sell to interested companies.
Bet cowman can explain how this works.

[cowman]

The scout is counting pipe when they trip or run casing. He knows fairly well where they are logging and therefore has a pretty good idea where they are hoping to find gas or oil.
A tight hole is usually an exploration well where they are looking but have no real hard data. Much cheaper for another company to let the other guy run the risk of a duster and find out just what they have.

[ALLFARMER]

Just watching the trucks comming & going you can learn quite a bit. Most companies are very specialized ex. Fracmaster / mainly hi pressure formation fracturing, Computalog / well loging, perforating, bridge plugs. Directional drilling teck's. From a distance a person could likely spot the length of a perf gun as its lowered into a well. If a well is sour it will be posted at the gate. Even counting the loads a water truck hauls in.

[ALLFARMER]

I used to work for a land company in Calgary & I looked after the Crown Sales. Oil companies sometimes would put in a low bid using their own name and put in another using the land company. My job was to return the cheques on unsuccessful bids usually 7 to 15 a sale. One week I return a cheque and the great looking blond, showed me around the office, all brass & glass overlooking the Bow river Nice! The next crown sale I walked in as she was walking out, I said hello & tried to start up a conversation and she walked right by me. Later I figured out she didn't want other companies knowing she used the outfit I worked for. Interesting job, the chq.'s were between $100,000 & $600,000 and half of them only had the banks name on it with an address. Chq's had to be returned as soon as I picked them up no exceptions. I should have changed my name to Provincial Treasurer!!

[farmers_son]

There was an oil scout parked on my property earier this month. When he left he gave me quite a bit of information about the confidential well being drilled 2 miles away. I asked how he could find out all that information just by watching the drilling rig, he said it was all electronic.

[farmers_son]

its a lot different now than it was in the early days of the patch ! Scouts in those days didn't have much for electronic equipment, just counted the pipe as it came out and used binoculars to do their spying, and prayed that some big old boy didn't come along and give them a whupping !!!!

Not that I was around in the old days of the oil patch but the stories are still told !