I remember after getting the logging equipment set up how it crossed my mind: "Thirteen days to go." We had a schedule that called for a maximum of two weeks, or 14 days, in the desert, followed by a week back in Benghazi. I went to sleep that night thinking, "13, 13, 13." It was still dark when Phil banged on my trailer door.

"Richard! Richard!" he yelled.

I stuck my head out and asked, "What? What?"

Phil was trying to find some notes when he said, "Richard, we got spudded right after midnight, and hell, at 550 feet we got a damn good show."

"Well, it kicked most of the mud out of the hole and flowed gas until we pumped mud and killed it."

"I can't believe that, but catch me some samples and kill the SOB."

I got dressed, and by the time I got to the rig things were back to normal. "Huh?" A good show and gas to the surface at 550 feet.

Well, when I called in the report the next morning, the district geologist was as surprised as I was. Of course, we were 150 miles from the coast, so gas was pretty worthless. I figured that was just the freakiest show, but I was wrong. We hadn't drilled another........

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