Driller

Hubert H. Hays, who lived from 1935 to 2005, spent five decades in the oil fields, working from West Texas into New Mexico, Alaska, China, and other places where the industry has pushed into new ground. His reputation often arrived before him, and he probably drilled as many wells as anyone of his generation. He set records on gas wells and never suffered a blowout.

His skill rested on hard knowledge of how equipment and the earth behave. He understood how casing and drill pipe respond when temperatures fall to minus 70 degrees, and how conditions at 500 degrees far underground change the work of drilling.

Hays also paid close attention to the people beside him. Over the years he came to know the mixed assortment of roughnecks who make a productive crew, and he gathered accounts of their unusual lives and the many routes men take into oilfield work.

Driller, drawn from notes and recorded interviews gathered by Hays's wife, Catherine, and edited by Russ McAfee, follows his life through its highs and lows, its lessons and its hardships, against the work that meets the world's energy demands. Readers will find practical technical insight, lively anecdotes, and a candid picture of oilfield life as experienced by the men who drill for energy.