I'm gonna kill my operator

So a little about my job, I work for an oilfield pressure pumping company and I am a "Cementing and Stimulation supervisor".

I recently was sent to a matrix acidizing followed by remedial squeeze cement job.

Basically it goes like this;

Pump 500 litres of 15% hydrochloric acid down the well and into zone of interest, then batch up heavy cement slurry and pump it down to plug the hole we just expanded with the acid.

Open it up to seal it off properly. This is done when an oilwell is causing problems, it's a way to repair a well that is either producing from a zone it shouldn't be or is potentially contaminating other zones or water zones.

The problem is this time I had a new operator, who is very experienced, but new to me. I asked him if he knew how to properly wash a remedial truck, because the process is different from what most guys know. He assured me he had done lots of remedial work...

Fast forward to 7 days later. I am taking the pumper we used to another district so they can go to the North West Territories with it and utilize it. And this is what we found when myself and the other supervisor started going over the truck....

Start to the pile of debris from tank

Inside front of mix tank

Access to bottom suction lines

These should be hollow piping

Boulder retrieval

I went in and got the first one and then a couple operators went in and got the second one.

Swinging sledge hammers and crow bars inside that tank is a serious pain in the ass, and then we had to whittle them down to a size that would fit out the hatch...

Success

Hard hat for comparison

So, I'll reiterate, when that operator gets back from days off... I'm going to kill him.