Page 14 - Practical Well Planning and Drilling Manual

Front Matternew.qxd 1/24/05 11:43 AM Page xiv

Practical Well Planning and Drilling Manual
Among my mentors I count and thank Ken Fraser. Ken was a Shell
toolpusher on one of my first rigs as a trainee in Holland, and I later
worked for him in Brunei as a driller. I learned a lot from him.
Another good friend and teacher is Frank Verlinden, who spent
more years in Brunei than any other Shell employee. Frank talked of
things forgotten in today’s industry and knew from many years of expe-
rience how to handle any situation you could throw at him. Given a
glass of wine and a small prompt, he could recount endless stories,
which were fascinating as well as educational.
I hope my other friends and colleagues, too numerous to thank
individually, will forgive me for not compiling a huge list here.

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