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Manufacture of Nitroglycerin and Use of High Explosives in Oil and Gas Wells*

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Manufacture of Nitroglycerin and Use of High Explosives in Oil and Gas Wells* Manufacture of Nitroglycerin and Use of High Explosives in Oil and Gas Wells* By C. O. RISON, t BARTLESVILLE, OKLA. (New York Meeting, February, 1929) HIGH explosives, particularly nitroglycerin, have been used in tor­ pedoes for the purpose of shooting oil and gas wells for more than 60 years. The early history of the oil industry in Pennsylvania is not clear as to who actually torpedoed the first well, although in 1865 the Roberts Torpedo Co. procured a patent covering the process. Gunpowder was first used, although nitroglycerin was substituted shortly afterwards. Wells are shot for the purpose of increasing the flow of oil and gas. A shot-hole in the producing horizon, with its contributory fissures and fractures, increases the area of and stimulates drainage into the hole. The shot-hole also acts as a collecting basin from which the oil is pumped. As a rule, hard or close-grained sands or limes are shot, other more or Downloaded from http://onepetro.org/TRANS/article-pdf/82/01/240/2178274/spe-929240-g.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 less porous and soft formations usually do not require shooting, and might be injured by blasting. Shooting is also resorted to in mechanical trouble such as straightening crooked holes, sidetracking pipe or tools, and for severing frozen strings of casing or drill pipe. Explosives are also used sometimes to extinguish oil or gas-well fires although that work, which involves unusual conditions and methods, does not properly come within the classification of oil-well shooting. SOME FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED IN SHOOTING WELLS Although nitroglycerin has been used extensively for more than half a century in shooting oil and gas wells, there is still a great deal of uncer­ tainty as to the proper method of shooting or the amount of explosive required to produce best results in a particular formation. The POS­ sibility of shooting unproductive or cavey formations above or below the productive horizons, shooting into lower water, destroying casing seats, and the splitting or collapsing of casing strings, are factors that require consideration. The engineering departments of a number of the larger oil companies are making a study of methods of shooting, and the amounts of liquid nitroglycerin or other explosives required in shooting various productive * Revision of paper presented by the author before Mid-Continent Section, A. I. M. E., Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 7, 1928. t Superintendent, Oil Department, Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Co. 240 C. O. RISON 241 strata. However, it is not unusual for some operators to load the hole with as much nitroglycerin as can be contained in the shell of largest diameter that will pass down the hole, regardless of the character or productivity of the formation to be shot. As a rule a well is shot by a torpedo company shooter who is entirely unfamiliar with the physical condition of the well beyond the meager information supplied by the operator at the time the shot is ordered. Oftentimes, haste in drilling prevents the proper testing, and subsequent logging of information, which would enable the operator to space or place the explosive charge more advantageously. Measurements vary, according to the methods used to obtain them, and the resultant dis­ crepancies have probably contributed largely on the side of error. The only obligation of the torpedo company and its shooter ,is to explode a certain quantity of explosive between specific depths in the well, based on the measurements and determinations of the operator. The method Downloaded from http://onepetro.org/TRANS/article-pdf/82/01/240/2178274/spe-929240-g.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 of detonation is usually prescribed by the operator. As most operators have not made any study of shooting methods or quantities of explosive required and are anxious to stay as far away as possible from the dan­ gerous proceeding, it is not infrequent that the production of a well is hurt, rather than helped, by an improper charge or misplaced shot. Some operators have shot their own wells with more or less success, using either gelatin dynamite or straight nitroglycerin dynamite. How­ ever, this is not general except in isolated cases, such as in the Poteau gas field, Oklahoma. Employees of oil or gas companies may have watched the shooting of hundreds of wells and through their observations have become more or less familiar with, if not actually proficient in, many of the details involved. While the knowledge gained through such observations is valuable from the standpoint of education in field practice, it does not qualify them as to the intimate understanding of explosives and the precise technique which is required in the actual work of shooting an oil or gas well. Several disastrous premature explosions as listed at the end of this paper, have emphasized the fact that inherently dangerous high explo­ sives should only be handled by one whose skill and knowledge of them have come from long experience. PRESENT LITERATURE ON NITROGLYCERIN AND OIL-WELL SHOOTING The present literature, dealing with the subject of nitroglycerin, includes a considerable number of comprehensive technical works by eminent foreign and American authors! as well as countless numbers of 1 H. Brunswig: Explosives. Translated by C. E. Munroe and A. L. Kibler. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1912. O. Guttman: Industrie der Explosivestoffe. MacmiIIan & Co., New York, 1895. 242 USE OF NITROGLYCERIN IN OIL AND GAS WELLS short papers by various equally prominent chemists and technicians on some particular phases of the manufacture. Most of the technical works are built up entirely from laboratory experiments and mathematical or theoretical calculations, and are beyond the understanding of the ordinary student. In common with the methods and processes outlined in the papers of chemists and technicians, the work of these authors has been conducted with exactitude as to methods and materials, and under ideal conditions. The technology is therefore valuable to the large-scale plants which are provided with laboratory facilities, but it is inapplicable in many ways to the operation of ordinary torpedo company oil-field plants, which are generally operated at small capacity and without the perfect refrigeration, reclamation, and laboratory facilities of the large plants. Naoum's new book referred to covers large-scale manufacture and properties of nitroglycerin and the nitric esters homologous with and Downloaded from http://onepetro.org/TRANS/article-pdf/82/01/240/2178274/spe-929240-g.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 related to nitroglycerin in a comprehensive manner. While Naoum, like many other authors, writes from the standpoint of European practice, the student will find the translation to be an understandable source of information on the particular subjects named. Although the general public, through a gradually increasing contact and use of blasting materials of lower strength, has developed proficiency in handling and application, it is not to be inferred that nitroglycerin can, or should, be handled by the same persons or in the same manner. Long experience, together with a religious regard for the dangerous characteristics of nitroglycerin, are the qualifications of the successful torpedo man. Consequently, the public interest may, perchance, have been benefitted through omission of detail in regard to some of the phases of manufacture or application by the various authors. This paper should not be construed as an attempted textbook on the chemistry or manufacture of high explosives. Modern methods and practices vary according to plant conditions, facilities, and the intended use of the explosive. While nitroglycerin is manufactured in both the small field plant of the torpedo company and the large-scale dynamite plant, the facilities of the latter are modern and adequate. Their product, manufactured under ideal conditions and with exactitude, is usually utilized in the same plant in the manufaCture of gelatinized explosives, dynamite, and powder. Consequently, the highly specialized manufacturing operations and practices of the large explosive plant places M. Eissler: Modern High Explosives. 3d ed. John Wiley & SonR, New York, 1889. E. M. Symmes: Technology Involved in Commercial Profluction of Xitrogl~'­ cerino Chem. & Met. Eng. (1921) 25, 831. P. Naoum: Nitroglycerin and Nitroglycerin Explosives. Translated by E. M. Symmes. The Williams & Wilkins Co., Baltimore, 1928. C. O. RISON 243 it in a class of operations beyond the range of this discussion, except as it may be particularly referred to in the text. The small torpedo company field nitroglycerin plant, in some remote place, presents a different aspect. It manufactures nitroglycerin only, and its hazards are multiplied many times by the human equation and the necessity of repeated handling in transportation and storage. Its sensitive product must be transported over miles of rough oil-field roads, and there again handled to the bottom of deep wells. In his discussion of manufacturing operations, practices, and hazards the modern explosives engineer or technician has shown little interest in the methods of manufacture, handling, and application of nitroglycerin in the oil industry. This lack of interest has probably come from a lack of knowledge of the technique and the problems of drilling and oil production. Likewise, field production forces are neither explosives engineers nor oil-well shooters. From observation, they are acquainted Downloaded from http://onepetro.org/TRANS/article-pdf/82/01/240/2178274/spe-929240-g.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 with the accepted use and general application of high explosives, but are generally unfamiliar with all of the many precautions that must be religiously observed if any degree of safety is to be expected in their use and application. One of the principal objects in the preparation of this paper has been to outline, in an abstract yet understandable way, the history and characteristics of nitroglycerin as well as the technique of manufacture and application in the oil industry.
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