Stuck Pipe Recovery: Free Point Tools, String Shots & Jarring Explained

Stuck Pipe Recovery: Free Point Tools, String Shots & Jarring Explained

Show Notes

  • Blackstone acquires Enverus – what it means for oil and gas data access and pricing
  • Opportunities for smaller, independent data providers
  • Heat trace systems – how and why they’re used in cold-weather operations
  • Free point tools and jarring – the process of freeing stuck drill pipe
  • Understanding drilling zones and how geology affects lateral placement
  • California vs. Oklahoma – surprising similarities in power generation mixes
  • Secondary recovery – water floods and steam floods explained

Here's the math Wade was thinking through on the fly this week, if you wanted to see the equation:

Imagine you are walking across a giant football field that is tilted just a little bit—so little that you can barely tell it is sloping. You walk straight forward for two miles, but because the field is sloped, you slowly end up higher or lower than when you started.

In this case:

  • The “tilt” is the bed dip (1°).
  • Every 100 feet you walk, you go 1.75 feet up or down.
  • After 2 miles (10,560 feet), that small slope adds up to almost 185 feet of change.
  • Depending on how you measure it, you could call it about 350 feet if you think about it in certain chunks, like Wade was doing.

The big idea is this:

Even if you stay in the same “layer” underground, if the layer tilts, your actual depth changes a lot over long distances.

Here’s the math from Wade’s example written as an equation. Don't roast it.

What we know: 

  • Bed dip = 1°
  • Lateral length = 2 miles = 10,560 feet
  • Vertical change per 100 ft drilled ≈ 1.75 ft (from 1° dip)

First, find vertical change per foot drilled: 

1.75 ft / 100 ft=0.0175 ft vertical per foot drilled

Next, apply to total lateral length: 

Vertical change=10,560 ft drilled × 0.0175 ft vertical/ft drilled

Vertical change=184.8 ft

Then, Wade doubled that number because he’s talking about a two-mile lateral and applying his “1.75 ft per 100 ft” figure to each 1,000 ft segment over the full 2 miles:

1.75 ft per 100 ft × 10,560 ft / 100 ft=184.8 ft

Then doubled because he re-ran the math in “per 1,000 ft” chunks:

17.5 ft per 1,000 ft×20 (thousand-ft segments)=350 ft

Final equation Wade was implying:

TVD change = (1.75 / 100 ×L) = 1.75 x 10,560=184.8 ft (or 350 ft if using his adjusted logic)

The takeaway:

Even if you keep your true stratigraphic position constant (e.g., always 50 ft below the top of the mist), the true vertical depth (TVD) can change by hundreds of feet along a long lateral because of bed dip.

Transcript

Peter Brecht (00:00)
One thing we were talking about right before we hit record was this Blackstone acquisition of Enverus.

Wade Spear (00:07)
Right.

Peter Brecht (00:07)
I’m seeing a lot on Twitter about it—mostly sarcastic and facetious comments—about private equity, especially Blackstone. Blackstone’s the first company that started buying up a lot of real estate when people were losing their homes, and they started buying Bitcoin. There’s a lot of tension with that kind of thing. What are your thoughts on this Enverus acquisition?

Wade Spear (00:13)
Bro… yeah. I think there’s a lot of uncertainty with it. What are they going to do with it? What’s their plan? Data is powerful in oil and gas—whether it’s offset production data, drilling information, or whatever it is.

For a private equity company—especially when a lot of oil and gas companies have strained relationships with private equity—to come in and purchase one of the major purveyors of data in our industry… there’s concern they might raise prices, limit access, or change things.

That said, it also creates opportunities. There are independents making software that can scrape public information and present it differently. This could be a big chance for those smaller players to gain market share and investment, to compete on the same level as Enverus.

Peter Brecht (01:37)
Yeah. One of the guys talking about it is Zach Copeland—he’s with Forecast, compiling drilling data. Zach, if I’m off on what you’re doing, call us and tell us.

Wade Spear (01:47)
Yeah, there’s overlap.

Peter Brecht (02:08)
Another one I came across a few days ago is Convey640, which focuses specifically on Oklahoma. I like specialization and talking to people doing it, because their depth of knowledge about one area is incredible.

Wade Spear (02:12)
Right. And with smaller companies, the founders are boots-on-the-ground. They live it day in and day out and understand their data. It will be interesting to see what results from this, even outside the acquisition itself.

Peter Brecht (02:34)
I was talking to a guy in Oklahoma with six wells and two disposal wells north of Tulsa. His wells are on Indian reservation land, which has a completely different regulatory approach. I’d never thought about that—like we have federal land in California you can’t drill on, but in Oklahoma there are wells on that land.

Wade Spear (03:29)
I’m drilling on BLM land right now. The regulations aren’t necessarily more strict, but they are more specific. You have to be thorough with permitting and compliance.

Peter Brecht (03:46)
Right. Okay, I’m trying to stump you. My first question: what is heat trace?

Wade Spear (04:17)
Heat trace is wrapping a wire around surface tubing when it’s extremely cold. After wrapping, you insulate it, then connect it to a power source. Current runs through the wire, generating heat to keep fluid inside from freezing. It’s not unique to oil and gas—any industry with exposed piping carrying freezable fluids can use it.

Peter Brecht (05:07)
Got it.

Wade Spear (05:47)
It’s more common up north, but in places like Oklahoma or Texas, prolonged freezes can shut in production because facilities aren’t designed for sustained cold.

Peter Brecht (06:28)
Makes sense. Okay, next: what is a free point?

Wade Spear (06:34)
In drilling, if you get stuck, you run a wireline tool called a free point tool. It detects whether the pipe is still moving when you apply torque or tension. By checking at different depths, you pinpoint where you’re stuck.

Once identified, you might back off the drill pipe using left-hand torque and a small explosive device called a string shot. This vibration allows the connection to unscrew, so you can pull out and run jars—hydraulic tools that deliver short, high-force impacts to free stuck pipe.

Peter Brecht (09:06)
Got it. And jars are basically hammers for drill pipe?

Wade Spear (12:35)
Exactly. They create a quick impulse force, either up or down, to jar you loose.

Peter Brecht (14:19)
Fascinating. Okay—what is a drilling zone?

Wade Spear (18:11)
A drilling zone is your target formation, like the Mississippian or Woodford. Within it, you might have preferred sub-intervals. It’s not just depth—it’s relative to the formation’s bedding plane. A one-degree bed dip can shift your true vertical depth by hundreds of feet over a two-mile lateral, even while staying in the same stratigraphic position.

Peter Brecht (22:44)
That’s wild. Is Colorado good for oil and gas?

Wade Spear (23:16)
Denver has many oil and gas company headquarters—strategic for proximity to North Dakota, Wyoming, and the Niobrara—but drilling and production there are tough now due to a challenging regulatory environment. Many companies operate elsewhere but keep Denver HQs.

Peter Brecht (24:35)
Makes sense. Your turn to ask me a question.

Wade Spear (24:42)
Compare Oklahoma and California’s power generation mix—renewables, natural gas, coal, nuclear.

Peter Brecht (25:28)
I’d guess California imports most energy, has little drilling, and no coal. Nuclear is down since San Onofre closed.

Wade Spear (27:44)
Imports are 20–33%. Renewables are 57% of in-state generation—32% solar, 7% hydro, 7% wind. Natural gas is 35%, nuclear 7%, coal near zero.

Oklahoma is 58.8% renewables—42% wind—35% natural gas, 6% coal, no nuclear. The mixes are surprisingly similar.

Peter Brecht (31:59)
Interesting—California might be doing better than we think, though we’re underutilizing our oil and gas resources.

Wade Spear (32:29)
Exactly. The data challenges some assumptions about “green” versus “oil-heavy” states.

Peter Brecht (33:48)
One last question—what are secondary recovery methods like water floods and steam floods?

Wade Spear (34:18)
Water floods: you inject water into certain wells to push oil toward producing wells, recycling the water after separation. Steam floods: same idea, but inject steam—common in California to heat heavy crude for flow. Both are late-life production methods.

Peter Brecht (37:41)
Got it. Very cool. Thanks, Wade.

Wade Spear (38:27)
That was great.