umiat oil field update no 4, page-39

Yes perforations are done with explosives. Shaped charges, like anti-tank warheads!

The thing is they used an oil based mud which was presumably to prevent freezing and also to prevent swelling clays. There would be a little bit of water in there and also a little bit in the formation but if it's as heavily oil-saturated as they say I can't see how it could ice up.

I didn't realise it was so shallow - apparently only 500' which would be in the permafrost, but how come the US Navy got it to flow with a barefoot completion? Ice would have formed just as much in the barefoot, I would have thought.

All in all, something just doesn't add up.

Incidentally the oil-based mud probably explains why the fluorescence was so good too!