LEASE MEN In all oil fields the workmen have special duties. The well crew works on the wells that give trouble. These men pull rods and pumps, start gas engines, and do some of the general roust about work around a lease. They are usually daylight workers.
The pumpers watch the pumping wells and oil the machinery. They work 12 hr. per day, relieving one another every 12 hr.
Special gas engineero, steam fitters, electricians, firemen for the boilers, and "cleaning out" men for troublesome wells, are all used on large leases or farms.
Production competent production man is more than a good mechanic. He must also be a man who appreciates the possibilities of natural conditions. A lease boss who can attend to his wells obediently, but has no idea of natural under ground conditions, is at sea in obtaining the maximum of production.
keeping of oil-field records is most important to any individual operator, or producing oil company.
There should be a general map on a small scale showing the location of a company's holdings with respect to development, new structures, and to each other. (See Fig. 60a.) There should also be maps on a larger scale, made in orderly units showing each property and the ownership thereof, both fee and lease. This map should show the exact location of development (producing and abandoned wells, dry holes, and gas wells) and of storage and transportation facilities. A plat of producing leases on a still larger scale is of great assistance in working out subsurface conditions and production problems, and in showing inventory and invoice. A careful geological map showing the surface geology in new untested areas, should be on file (Fig. 60b). if the field has been developed, a careful map made from well records should be available. (See Fig. 61a). Well records should be kept graphically. All formations should be noted and depths given; casing records should be put on the same graph. Such information as oil, gas, and water sands, should be carefully noted. Not only should graphic well records be kept, but care fully compiled cross-sections should be made showing graphically just what the underground conditions may be. (See Fig. 61b.)
Information of this kind is invaluable to careful operators. Graphic charts showing the production of individual wells, of groups of wells, of all the wells in a single field, and then of the total production from all the fields, furnish valuable guides for the executive officers. Such charts enable one to follow produc tion quickly from field to field, far better than any amount of printing. They enable the field men to place their fingers at once on well troubles. Charts may also be made to show drilling costs, or any other data desired. Production charts are especially useful in making valuations of oil property, in allowing for depletion and for income tax purposes. Appraisal curves are also useful when buying or selling properties. Their use has become quite general in recent years. This subject is treated at greater length in Chapter IX on "Valuation." Production Records.—Orderly production records are as essential for the healthy life of a concern as an accurate method of accounting. Aside from information, such as value of oil produced, a working basis for taxation, and figuring the retirement of invested capital, the records, if properly kept, have a future application which is often overlooked. From the viewpoint of the value of a property, oil produced at a given time means little except in relation to past production. Certain information concerning the history and behavior of wells is invaluable to the production engineer. Oftentimes the greater part of the same data has a value for the accountant or auditor. Obviously, if it can all be kept at once, and in a form that is concise and simple, a saving of time and effort is the result.
Cases are numerous, chiefly among small producers, where the bare record of pipe-line or tank runs is the only inventory kept. Occasionally a concern is discovered which makes no deduction for water produced with the oil, while operators are legion who can show only gross oil and water for the entire lease or property.