EDMONTON, ALBERTA – In a storage yard south of Edmonton, Alberta a disaster unfolded over the May long weekend. It started with a prank, became a project, and ended in a serious mess.
According to statement of facts issued by the Edmonton Police Service, in the early hours of May 18th, 2024, several individuals snuck into the storage yard of BrokeBit Drilling Inc.. Using their skills and collective knowledge they erected a derrick, connected pumps and power and hooked up to some old mud storage tanks. The group of men then picked up an old bit and bottom hold assembly and spudded a well in place sometime late Friday evening or early Saturday morning.
As they drilled this “joke” hole, interest began to spike around the thought of actually getting a productive well inside city limits, and they pressed on, but more carefully watching parameters as they intended to keep moving deeper to a gas or oil reservoir. With no geologist or senior supervisor on site, they relied on mud shows and bubbles or oil shows to indicate a strike.
By Sunday afternoon they had reached a depth of 348m and bubbles began to percolate through the bushing onto the floor with a significant increase in drilling mud, prior to what is known as a kick. The well fluid and gas began to bypass mechanical stops and the individuals involved fled the rig shutting off generators and pumps as they ran away from the scene.
Unknown to the persons involved, management at Brokebit Drilling Inc. had gotten wind of the prank operation and arrived prior to the connection to mud tanks of drilling fluid, installed their own high capacity air system, and as the sun rose Sunday morning, initiated the blow out using the compressed air and muddy water, which was all the fluid was comprised of, after being scraped off the ground after the previous day’s rainfall.
The individuals responsible are not known to the police or the public at large, and no charges are being laid. According to rumours, senior management at Brokebit Drilling Inc. know who they are and have said the persons are assumed to have learned their lesson.