Banquo: The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them. Whither are they vanished?
Macbeth: Into the air; and what seemed corporal melted,
As breath into the wind. Would they had stayed!
--from William Shakespeare's Macbeth, Act I, Scene 3--
I am back with Hubby in the Land of Lincoln, though I only get to see him for brief intervals now that the season of drilling for oil is in full swing here. He took these short videos for me. I try to avoid visiting the rig as much as possible since women are seldom seen on a drilling platform and could tend to be disruptive to the roughnecks. You can find another name I have chosen for them in an earlier post that discusses colorful oil field terms. I accidentally switched the order of the videos so please click on the second one first.
Most geologists subscribe to the theory that oil is a limited resource that originates from rotten plant and animal matter buried eons ago deep in the earth and subjected to great pressure underground. There are other theories out there, however, which challenge the notion that oil reserves are finite. It would be nice to find out those theories are true and not just the product of someone's imagination.
That is pretty cool. I did not know they drilled so much in Illinois. In Indiana there are some small rigs-do you suppose they are looking for oil? I always thought for water, but I think I am wrong.
ReplyDeleteHi, Tina. Yes, oil can be found in Indiana. In fact, part of the Illinois Basin extends into that state. The Illinois Oil and Gas Association has its annual meeting in Evansville, Indiana, I guess to accommodate its very productive Indiana members.
ReplyDeleteThat is funny! That is where our other house is located! I LOVE that city. This is all very interesting.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you are near hubby!
ReplyDeleteInteresting videos. Thank you, I had no idea. Nice to know fuel is only a state away!
Namaste,
Sherry
W2W: Those were two interesting vedios of the oil rig. I have fear every time that chain is wrapped. Thanks for sharing these shots.
ReplyDeleteAh, you have figured out the video indeed! Good job. I have watched a bit of that new show on oil rigs not sure the name of it but I did know what a roughneck was from the show. lol...
ReplyDeleteWhen all the other kids went to Miami or Panama City for HS Graduation, me and my friends went to Pensacola! We loved it as it was not so touristy back then in 1981. Am sure it is a bit touristy today though... I remember a white cross on a dune and a Red, White and Blue water tower. Are they still there? I still remember the air painted yellow tee shirt I got while there. LOL…
Sigh, being a mechanic and intimately aware of the byproducts of combustion I hope oil is finite. We as a society and care takers of this planet have got to get off this drug we call oil.
ReplyDeleteIt's a massive industry here also with the tar sands out west but the greater cost to people, animals and the land is far too great. There are so many carcinogens in oil and even more in their byproducts especially when burnt.
The smog in Toronto is so heavy at times as it lies in a massive valley that swings basically west to east collecting allot of pollutants from the south and carrying them through here.
Necessity is the mother of all invention and a finite, dwindling supply of oil may be the catalyst to a cleaner, easier to breath in world.
Like I said I was a mechanic and many industries I work with now are involved in some way with oil production, but my need for money shouldn't offset my responsibility to future generations.
My daddy worked the oil fields of Texas as a young man and in the oil fields of southern California when I was a girl. I didn't even know they had oil in Illinois.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post.
Very interesting post and the videos are great. It must be very hard work and isolating that you can't have women on the platform? I always thought that oil was finite and find Ted's comment very interesting ...Great post.
ReplyDeleteInteresting videos, W2W; let's hope they do find some oil! Glad you are back in Illinois with Hubby, though I know you must miss the rest of your family in Florida. But enjoy the colors of fall while you are here.
ReplyDeleteInteresting lines from Macbeth to quote: are you suggesting they are performing a bit of witchery?:)
I guess the only thing worse than not having an oil well in the backyard is having an oil well that someone else owns the mineral rights to.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post, I had never heard the theory that oil was limitless.
Marnie
Tina, with blogging my world gets smaller all the time and more fascinating. It seems like the only time I get to see Evansville is in the winter. Do they have any nice gardens there to visit in the warm months?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sherry. The oil is close to you but gets trucked elsewhere for refining into fuel. Ironic, isn't it?
FG, thank you. I think drilling rigs may be about as dangerous as coal mines--so much stuff getting torqued and ready to snap at any moment...maybe another reason why the roughnecks behave the way they do when off duty.
Skeeter, I'm not sure if learning the video feature is a blessing or a curse. Now I'm not as satisfied with taking still shots. The dang videos do take a such long time to upload, though. Regarding the beach, the water tower now resembles a beach ball, and I have seen the cross. It's on a lonely sand dune, one of the few remaining, tucked in among towering hotels and condos. You graduated in '81? You're still a pup!
Ted, you're right about invention. It's a brainchild, and someone needs to think of ways to burn fuel even more cleanly and efficiently. Unfortunately, our modern way of living requires a lot of the nasty stuff. Unless we all want to live in grass huts or caves again and forget about traveling, using computers, or anything else requiring plastic components, we need to find more oil and quickly.
Mom, Illinois in no way competes with Texas for oil drilling, but it has contributed in a fair way over the years to domestic production. It's just now beginning to recover from a twenty-plus-year drought in drilling. When the price is low, there is no incentive for investors to step up and lay down their money. Now that oil is back, the coal industry seems to be following suit, and the economy around here is looking rosier than it has in decades. I think people have forgotten that it takes real resources and manufacturing, all the "dirty" stuff we would rather not think about, to keep this country going. Wall Street fantasies have to end sometime, overseas outsourcing can have nightmarish consequences (not everybody in the world plays "fair"), and real estate bubbles will burst, as we all have noticed.
Michelle, thanks. Hubby doesn't work too hard on the rig; he's just the geologist. He loses a lot of sleep, though, when the rigs are running. They are 24-hour operations; the drilling crews run 8-hour shifts; hubby is the only "shift" reporting for duty. I exaggerate a bit by calling the rig floor a platform. It's nothing like an offshore operation. The roughnecks get to go home after their shifts are over. They do make hay while the sun shines, though, and don't take many days off (unless they happen to get arrested) except in the winter when drilling usually dwindles to nothing.
Thank you, Rose! I am noticing the colors beginning to change here and there. I hope Hubby gets a weekend break soon so we can take some fall hikes together. Regarding Macbeth: the Illinois basin suggests a cauldron; whenever men are involved in "violating" Mother Earth, she is liable to react with a vengeance and seems to cast a spell on the violators (see my earlier post); there is a bit of magic and/or luck involved in discovering oil.
Yes, I like Mesker Zoo. It is about the only garden there that I know of. If you get there, email me and we should meet up. I prefer to go shopping when I am E'ville, LOTS of stores with great stuff. I can take you to some of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteMarnie, I can think of something worse: Drilling a "dry hole" or one that is a marginal producer at best and having to explain it to the investors. Even the best scientific evidence or educated guess on a prospect cannot guarantee oodles of oil. It's a bit of a gamble every time a hole is drilled. I guess the limitless oil theory is not something the media or speculators want people to know about. No sense in letting the "masses" become complacent about anything. It's not good for business/politics in either case.
ReplyDeleteTina, I would love to go shopping and garden gazing with you. Here's hoping for a productive drilling season!
Tell my body I am a pup! lol...
ReplyDeleteCan't believe those two landmarks are still there! Progress, arggggg....
Yeah, Skeeter, you're still a pup, sweet and lovable. You'll know you're not when you get to the point in life where your bark (especially, it seems, on a blog) gets more of a bite. I think I may have reached that point. ;>}
ReplyDeleteWhen I get to that point, I am a shy dog and back away.. tee hee...
ReplyDeleteBein an old pipeliner/large natural gas compressor operator, I have an interest in what this post is about.
ReplyDeleteAs a gardener, I also have an interest in below ground things. ;~)
I'm so glad you arrived safe and sound.
Skeeter, your virtual giggle makes me laugh. I used to be a shy dog too until I went back to university and finished my English degree. The professors at UWF were kind enough to let an old dog like me find her voice and speak. Now I'm finding it hard to shut up. Maybe I need a muzzle...
ReplyDeleteTC, how interesting! Was it dangerous work? It sounds like it might have been. I know the well operators around here have to be careful about inhaling hydrogen sulfide gas when working on a site. One pumper got killed last year from breathing in the stuff. Regarding the below-ground things: Are you referring to the subsurface strata or subliminal messages? ;>}