Oilfield Superstitions

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Derrick Legge on April 19, 2010 at 12:32am

Never place elevators upside down, this makes the Rig Gods unhappy

Permalink Reply by Justun Huston on April 19, 2010 at 1:24am

I've heard that one...it's a good one. Seems to be pretty common so we'll just try our best to keep em happy!

Permalink Reply by Justun Huston on April 19, 2010 at 1:22am

That show was such a joke but I think there are a few discussions on here where we can talk about that all day long. They also blamed all there misfortunes on one hole on the fact that the crew didn't spit on the bit! Could've fooled me...I thought that it could have been because with all three guys working the floor they might have had 1/2 a good hand! O.K. I'm done ragging on them for tonight but don't get me started tomorrow...lol

Permalink Reply by Fred Hampton on April 19, 2010 at 3:20am

Always call a few blocks from home, to give your old lady and Jody the heads up. Never call from the rig to say when you think the job will be over as this is really bad JuJu. This just happened, my MWD hand called his wife and told her we only had 900' to TD and he'd be home in 24 hrs, Then we twisted off, fished for 2 days then we plugged back 5k of lateral!

Permalink Reply by Justun Huston on April 19, 2010 at 2:11pm

I have a story about that one...We had two women working as mud loggers on location on the last hole I was on. Our rig had not had a major accident in years. On the last week of drilling we had four accidents that all included broken bones. I'm just sayin...

Permalink Reply by Slim Pickens on April 19, 2010 at 5:34pm

How about just screwing your head on straight, Review procedures, wear your safety gear and fill out those permits and JRAs and ya won't have to worry about any of the bad juju that most bring upon themselves.

Just sayin !!

Permalink Reply by Steve on April 19, 2010 at 6:32pm

Hey Justun I read you didnt catch any fish dad burn it son you could of at least told us about the one that got away. Did ya bring your lucky rabbits foot??

Permalink Reply by Scott Mathis on April 19, 2010 at 8:04pm

One thing that has haunted me for the last 2 years is hot link and eggs together, be it in a sandwich, Burrito, or just sauced up together somehow. I can always tell when someone brought it. My crew actually believes me on it, and they respect it, and they leave that item at home!!!

Permalink Reply by Scott Mathis on April 20, 2010 at 8:03pm

Not just breakfast burritos Karl! ANYTHING with hot links and eggs together! Check it out, I'll tell you the night I finally figured it out. 2 years ago my hand Harry brought hot link and egg burritos on a regular basis. And every time he brought them something went wrong, as in something would break, be it an airline, hydraulic hose, a pipe wrench, etc.. etc.. One night we got on tour and the liner had been sunk and released, but not all the perfalite had been circulated out and the opposite tour driller told me that we were ready to foam right there. So we hooked up and fired up the foam unit, we were using Nabors for foam, the foam operator gave me the hand signal that we were packed off, I told him to bleed it down so I could pull high and maybe shake it loose. He gave me the all clear signal ( I did not have a PSI gauge on my stand pipe that I had asked for numerous times) Harry saw him give the break connect signal and pulled the tongs on, he got three turns on the 8rd pipe, I heard a hiss, before I could yell out "STOP!" there was a huge explosion, I was knocked half way down my poop deck deck stairs. I ran back up and locked down my break, and was wiping off my face when I heard someone screaming " CALL 911!" I looked at my shirtand thought, " Thats not that much blood..." I looked up and my Harry was knocked out on the floor! I ran up there and began feeling on his head looking for blood when he came to, I asked him where it hurt and he could not speak, but pointed to his stomach. My guts went into throat! I just knew he was blown in half from the PSI! I pulled up his shirt knowing I shouldnt, but I wanted to know what was wrong when I called for an ambulance or a heli-vac. His under shirt was soaked but intact, so I pulled it up. He had hundreds of pipe threads poking out of his stomach like worms. I looked up to check on my derrick hand Jay and he was getting up off the diving board, the hose had knocked him to the back of the board, he had a jacked up shoulder, I had rocks imbedded in my face, neck, shoulder, head, and right eye. The foam operator came running over with all safety gear he was suppose to use, but wasnt. He tried to put it all out, and then told me there was 400 PSI on it when we broke it out. RCFA concluded it his fault, and he was fired since that was the third time he did that, and did it again 1 week after RCFA was finalized. 4 days later when Harry returned to work he told me what he had brought for lunch that night, HOT LINK AND EGGS!!!! We came to an agreement we would never bring that again, the few times Harry has broke down and brought it we have bad days way before we even know what he has brought, soooooo he has told his girl to NEVER make that again. So be it foolhardy superstition, or just coincidence we no longer partake in Hot Link and Eggs!

Permalink Reply by Justun Huston on April 21, 2010 at 1:27am

Sry to hear about your misfortune. That's kinda why I started this discussion though. It seems that the more the oilfield changes the more we lose some of our old traditions. From reading everyone's posts so far I have gathered that most of us have our own little "practices" and do's and don'ts on the rig. Thanks for keeping this discussion going and I hope to hear more stories that I can pass on.

Permalink Reply by B.M.Barter on April 27, 2010 at 9:50pm

Cleaning your hard hat on tour was a sure sign of a trip,
Women on the floor distracted the hands and someone would get hurt,
Upside down elevators or wedding band means a fishing trip soon,
Spudding on a Sunday always brought trouble,
Spitting on the bit or tools would make sure they came back.

Permalink Reply by rob on May 10, 2010 at 4:42pm

NO CHERRY PIE,NO CHICKEN,NO UPSIDE DOWN ELEVATORS,ALWAYS SPIT ON THE BIT BEFORE TRIPPIN HER IN...im sure the list goes on n on..and of course never has your hard hat

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