Oil/Gas Rig - Elm Grove field

I went driving today through Elm Groves, Oil Field.  I took some pictures since my oil rig picture, and horizontal drilling post has gotten the most hits.  I figure that's what people want to see, so here's some more:

A recently complete pad on Lake Bistineau  Road

 

Same pad from a different angle

 The target zone is usually the Haynesville shale. A very prolific gas shale (about 2 miles deep).  Usually from these pads a number of wells can be drilled from it.  They then angle them off horizontally and then fracture the shale.
The pads normally need about five acres so that they can get the equipment and other things for the drilling of the well.  

I am driving up to another well that is actually being drilled.  This one is on Hwy 157, and I am headed west

 

 When they drill wells they like having a source of water nearby.  In this case it is Flat River.  Usually this river it full, and I was surprise to see it was so low for today. 

 

 Keen Rig 40, Elm Grove Field, Bossier Parish.Viewing it from the west.

Oil Rig - Keen #40,  Elm Grove Field

Looking east at the rig.

Keen Oil Rig #40; 2-26-2011

Keen Oil Rig -#40; Elm Grove Field 2-26-2011

Oil Rig 2-26-2011

 
Elm Grove field, this is a field that has been around for a long time. And has been produced from a number of different zones.  The current zone of interest is the Haynesville Gas Shale.

Elm Grove Field 2-26-2011

It is located on both sides of Hwy 157.

Elm Grove Field 2-26-2011

 As you can see the area is flat and that is why Flat River gets its name.  The reason the area is so flat is because it is part of the Red River flood plain. 

Elm Grove Field 2-26-2011

 If you look closely you can see all sorts of oil field equipment which is kept to store the products until tankers can come and get it.

And here is just some pictures I wanted to add in on Lake Bistineau.  As you can see when I visit the lake I feel like I am in the South.  At this point in the lake it looks more like a swamp than an lake. Because it has so many trees in it, the waves never get very high, which makes it a great place to go water skiing. It's been rated as a triple A for water skiing. It is a very fun place to visit, especially on hot summer days. But today I was only just looking today and not in it. -Burrrr the water is tooooo cooooldddd.  

Lake Bistineau at the spillway, 2-26-2011

Lake Bistineau at the spillway 2-26-2011

It feels like SPRING IS HERE!!

I have what I know as a Tulip Magnolia Tree (Japanese_magnolia or Mulan Magnolia) in my front yard, and this week it started to bloom. Isn't it a pretty tree?

Tulip Magnolia Tree 2-23-2011

Tulip Magnolia Tree 2-23-2011

Tulip  Magnolia Tree 2-23-2011

Tulip Magnolia Tree 2-26-2011

Tulip Mgnolia Tee 2-26-2010

Tulip Magnolia Tree 2-26-2011

Tulip Magnolia Tree Blossoms 2-26-2011

And Just a couple of days later- now look at how magnificent it can be

My cat having to check out what I was doing - 2-26-2011

Moon Trees - they are searching for them

  I like to read the local newspaper everyday.  On 2-17-11, I came across an article that caught my attention, because there was a map of the USA with numbers on it.  I love maps and whenever I see one I just have to look at it and muse upon it to figure out what it is trying to portray.  Well  this one definitely caught my attention and I thought I should share it with others.
   The title of the article was:
Space agency launches search for 'Moon Trees'.
It was in our USA Today section of the paper and is  here
I thought that since geologist are out in nature so much some of you may be able to help them locate these trees. I had never heard of them before and found the whole idea behind them intriguing. If you do know of one they want you to email NASA to the attention of Dave Williams at dave.williams@nasa.gov.

Space Shuttle- Columbia RIP

    The other day (Jan 28) I kept on reading stuff about the 25 anniversary of the space shuttle Challengers demise.  But to me all I could think about was the Columbia. I wanted to post this on Feb 1 to commemorate the demise of the Columbia but life interfered and I failed to do so.  Even though this is late here is my tribute to the Columbia. Here's Wikipedia info on the Space_Shuttle_Columbia.

    You see the Columbia was very special to me.  It actually flew by my office one day.  I couldn't believe I got to see it the way I did. I couldn't believe it could fly the way it did.  It was going to the air force base that is located very near where I was. What I saw totally amazed me and left me speechless for a while. It made me very proud to be an American that day.
  I was dating a guy that was an air force mechanic and was scheduled to work on the plane that was carrying the shuttle.  He wanted to get pictures of it.  He borrowed my camera.  He took these pictures with the understanding that I would get copies of them and I could reproduce them if I wanted to, since he wouldn't have gotten them without the use of my camera.  I consider these his pictures and thus are copyrighted to him, but I've always had the use of them and feel like its okay to share them.

  The other reason I've always had a special connection to Columbia is because I heard it when it exploded on Feb 1, 2003. ( heres more on the Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaster from Wikipedia) .  I'll never forget hearing the sonic boom and wondering what on year could that be.    It didn't take long for it to be on all the news stations. 
  It broke apart very close to where I was living at the time, Northwest Louisiana .  I actually knew people that had some of the debris fly into their yard.  It took months to recover what they did, and during that whole time it was a very sobering experience.  The whole area mourned the loss.

I feel it is only fitting that we keep the memory alive for other people to realize what a true tragic loss it was when we did loose the Columbia.  It was after this loss that they shut the space shuttle program down.

Space Shuttle Columbia, Spring 1982

8-2-2011
I read on the internet they discovered   a piece of the Columbia in an east Texas lake.