Ice Storm

It’s not quite February yet, but Oklahoma finds itself in its first winter storm of the New Year, the second in little more than a month. While I stayed off the road most of the day, this storm reminds me of another that happened many years ago - when I was much younger, much braver and a whole lot dumber.

I was doing well-site geology work for Cities Service Oil Company in central Kansas. I had been on a well for two weeks. When it came time to leave and return to Oklahoma City, the weather was too bad to do so.

Management didn’t care about the weather. In the days before cell phones, email and fax machines the only way to get an electric log from one location to another was to take it in your car.

“Have it in my office by eight tomorrow morning,” my boss had told me. “We need to know what to do with the well.”

I already knew what to do with the well. It was dry as the proverbial bone, not a single show of oil or gas from the surface to total depth. Being a young geologist, nobody believed me and insisted on seeing the electric logs for themselves.

It mattered little that the highway patrol had shut down I-35, closing all the ramps. I left the location at midnight, heading south to Oklahoma City. When I reached a blocked ramp, I got out of the car, moved the obstruction and drove up on the frozen interstate highway.

A thick sheet of ice covered the surface of Interstate 35. It was a good thing that I had a full tank of gas because no stations were open. The trip took more than four hours and I never saw another vehicle the entire time. If I had gone into the ditch, I would likely have remained there until the spring thaw.

Four members of management met me at the door the next morning when I reached my bosses office. They took the electric logs and my geologic report, never asking me a single question. They finally told me that I could go home, never telling me what they intended to do with the wildcat well we had drilled.

When I read Dilbert each morning in the cartoons, I’m reminded of Cities Service Oil Company. The mismanaged company soon sold to another large oil company. I didn’t care because I had already moved on to work for Texas Oil & Gas.

Instead of driving on an off-limits sheet of ice tonight, I am sitting in front of my computer, pecking out this little remembrance while preparing to watch Arkansas play Mississippi State in basketball. Did I learn anything from that little escapade? You bet! I’ve worked for myself now for thirty-two years. Now, when management orders me to do something completely stupid, I have no one to blame but myself.

Eric'sWeb