Miscellaneous Subsurface Methods 



535 



ofFshore. Some of these wells attained deflection angles greater than 60 de- 

 grees. Many of these holes were very poorly drilled directionally, but much 

 of the experience gained from these wells developed the art of directional 

 drilling to a standard well practice as used today. Numerous wells were 

 badly "dog-legged" with abrupt changes in drift and direction. Some wells 

 were unintentionally sidetracked while drilling; others collided. Producers 

 sometimes began pumping mud from a nearby drilling well and found 



^^rr- 



%i^?S iy4. 



Figure 262. Huntington Beach, California, town-lot field about 1935. The first 

 directional drilling was done in this field. 



their pumping wells were ruined. These angled wells presented new 

 problems in well surveying, problems which accelerated the development 

 of better instruments and equipment. 



Since 1938 one company has been developing a state lease lying under 

 the Pacific Ocean west of Huntington Beach. Wells have been drilled 

 continuously since then; a number are in process of drilling; and an 

 extensive program is planned for the future. Paralleling the shore, wells 

 are surface-spaced 27 feet apart so that a single steel derrick mounted on 

 wheels can serve a group of five pumping wells (fig. 263). These wells 

 are drilled in directioral cylinders, in many cases threading around wells 

 already producing, to bottom from 700 feet to a mile from their surface 

 locations at vertical depths of 4,000 to 5,000 feet. Wells drain an area 



