Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
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Stories from the Field,
Fundamental Questions and Solutions
This chapter might aptly be entitled “Confessions of a confused, high-tech
engineer.” And here's why. In 1981, I was Manager, Turbomachinery Design,
at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, United Technologies Corporation, the company that
supplied the great majority of the world's commercial jet engines. Prior to that,
I had served as Research Aerodynamicist at Boeing, working with pioneers in
computational fluid dynamics and advanced wing design. What qualified me for
these enviable positions was a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in acoustic wave propagation - and I had joined a stodgy M.I.T.
from its even stodgier cross-town rival, the California Institute of Technology.
These credentials in acoustics and fluid mechanics design made me eminently
qualified to advance the state-of-the-art in Measurement-While-Drilling (also
known as, “MWD” ) telemetry - or so I, and other companies, unknowingly
thought. At this juncture in my life, the journey through the Oil Patch begins.
1.1 Mysteries, Clues and Possibilities
As a young man, I had dreaded the idea of forever making incremental
improvements to aircraft systems, merely as a mainstay to the art of survival and
paying the mortgage, sitting at the same desk, in the same building, for decades
on end. That possibility, I believed, was a fate worse than death. Thus, in that
defining year, I answered a Schlumberger employment advertisement in The
New York Times for scientists eager to change the world - the petroleum world,
anyway. But unconvinced that any normal company would hire an
inexperienced aerospace engineer, and of all things, for a position chartered with
high-tech underground endeavors, I was unwilling to give up one of my ten
valuable, hard-earned vacation days. Still, the company was stubborn in its
pursuit and, for better or worse, kindly accommodated my needs.
Carl Buchholz, the division president at the time, interviewed me that one
fateful Saturday. “What do you know about oil?” he bluntly asked, giving me
that honest Texan look in the eye. To be truthful, I did not know anything, zilch.
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