In the past few years, producers in shale and tight-oil plays have made great strides in reducing their drilling costs and improving the productivity of their wells. But the trends toward much longer laterals and high-intensity well completions have significantly increased the volumes of sand being used—some individual well completions use enough sand to fill 100 railcars or more! An even bigger concern for many producers is the rising cost of disposing of produced water—that is, the water that emerges with hydrocarbons from these supersized wells. Today we begin a surfing-themed series that focuses on how the two key components of any beach vacation—sand and water—are impacting producer profitability.
Our initial focus is on sand. We’ll get to water-disposal costs later in this series. Put simply, the Shale Revolution would not have been possible without sand—and large volumes of it. As we said in Tales of the Tight Sand Laterals, freeing the vast amounts of oil, gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs) trapped in shale and tight sands requires horizontal drilling to access the long, horizontal layers where the trapped hydrocarbons reside, and proppant (natural sand, ceramics and resin-coated sand) that, when forced out of the horizontal portion of wells at high pressure (using water and other fluids), fracture openings in the surrounding shale/tight sands. When the pressure is released, the fractures attempt to close but the proppant contained in the fluids keeps them open, making a ready path for oil, gas and NGLs to flow into the well bore.
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Variants of horizontal drilling and today’s proppants have been used for decades. Back in the day, a technique called slant-hole drilling (where the drill bored diagonally instead of vertically) was used to access conventional oil and gas reserves in instances where it would be difficult or impossible to place a rig directly overhead (or when a driller wanted to surreptitiously access his neighbor’s crude). And hydraulic fracturing (forcing proppant into shale and tight sands) has been used to stimulate (or get more oil and gas out of) vertical wells for many decades too. True horizontal drilling—the ability to drill straight down, then (gradually) make a 90-degree turn and continue drilling sideways—reached commercial viability in the 1980s. The breakthrough that George Mitchell (the pioneer of modern shale fracturing) made in the Barnett Shale near Fort Worth a few years later involved combining horizontal drilling with an innovative proppant mix that “cracked the code” and got the source rock shale to give up its natural gas. (The successful use of the same combo for wringing crude oil out of shale and tight sands followed.)
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About the song
"Wipe Out" was written by Bob Berryhill, Pat Connolly, Jim Fuller and Ron Wilson (The Surfaris), and is the first cut on side one of The Surfaris' album of the same name. The band wrote the song on the spot in the studio for the B side of the single, "Surfer Joe." All of The Surfaris were in their mid-teens when they wrote “Wipe Out.” It is based on the same format as Preston Epp's 1959 hit, "Bongo Rock." Featuring an infectious drum beat throughout the song, the tune begins with a reverb-drenched sound of a board breaking, intended to sound like a surfboard breaking in two. This is followed by a manic voice saying, "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ... wipe out!" The Surfaris' manager, Dale Smallin, provided the recitation intro. Initially released in January 1963 on the independent label, DFS, then released again in February 1963 on the Princess label, the song became a hit after it was picked up for national distribution by Dot Records in April 1963. Dot quickly followed up with an album centered around "Wipe Out." The single went to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart. Personnel on the record were: Bob Berryhill (rhythm guitar), Jim Fuller (lead guitar), Pat Connolly (bass), Ron Wilson (drums) and Dale Smallin (recitation).
The Wipe Out LP, including its title track, was recorded at Pal Recording Studio in Cucamonga (now named Rancho Cucamonga), CA. During the recording, The Surfaris added saxophonist Jim Pash to the band. Richard Delvy produced the sessions. Delvy was a pioneer in the surf music scene, starting out as the drummer for The Bel-Airs, before going on to become a composer, arranger, music publisher, manager and record producer.
The Surfaris were an American surf rock band formed in Glendora, CA, in 1962. They are known for the hit records "Surfer Joe" and "Wipe Out,” which were the A and B sides of the same single. They have released nine studio albums and seven singles. "Wipe Out" has appeared on various compilation albums, and is featured in several television shows and movies. Original band member Bob Berryhill still occasionally performs with a band called The Surfaris. Pat Connolly left the music business in 1965. Ron Wilson died in 1989, followed by Jim Pash in 2005 and Jim Fuller in 2017.
