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Sometimes all of them. Sometimes none of them. In just three days in west Texas oil fields, we saw surfaces from sand dunes to plowed fields to rocky tablelands – and mixtures of all of them, along with roads built of broken, jagged rock called “caliche.” And scrub brush so tough its roots and branches can puncture truck tires. Temperatures ranged from freezing to blistering – often in the same day. Only the pace of work was constant: rush, rush, rush. As we learned, the conditions under which tires have to work depend, like almost everything in the petroleum industry, on the price of oil.

How do oil prices affect your tire usage?
Jeff Moore, yard manager, Key Energy Services, Inc., Odessa, Texas: “The price of oil determines how busy we’re going to be, how far we’re going to have to travel, how long equipment might sit, and how much we can spend on new equipment. All of that affects our tires.”

“Instead of buying new rigs, we’re refurbishing old ones – a big savings for us. It costs about $100 thousand for a new engine and transmission power package for a rig.”

Does the age of these rigs cause problems?
“It certainly means a mixed bunch of tires. Right in our yard, we’ve got tubeless, tube-type, Dayton-style wheels, and modern steel wheels. And all kinds of tire sizes.”

What kinds of work do these rigs do?
“We have self-propelled drilling rigs that can weigh upwards of 120,000 lbs., and we also have about 1,400 service workover rigs and 1,100 water trucks that either haul fresh water to wells or brine away from them.”

Why all the water?
“Oil wells don’t produce just oil. They also produce salt water, which has to be hauled away. While you’re drilling, you need fresh water to mix drilling ‘mud,’ which lubricates the bit and carries away rock chips. Those trucks often run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

As hard as you are on tires, do you retread?
“We couldn’t work the economics without them. We’re doing well if we get two retreads per casing.”

What kinds of conditions do you find in the oil fields themselves?
Buster McCullough, Bill Williams Tire Center, Midland, Texas: “Within a few miles of here, there are sand dunes, plowed fields, rock and scrub-filled areas, and caliche roads leading into all of them.”

In what ways?
“Our equipment is heavy, with tires almost always near maximum loads. If we’re busy because oil prices are up, especially in the heat of summer, tires wear fast, run hot, and aren’t very retreadable. “And if prices are down, that can be rough too. With equipment sitting in the sun, ozone can damage tires that may have very few miles on them.”

So it’s probably hard on tires?
“You bet. Treads get cut up and sidewalls get damaged constantly. Not only that, but when the price of oil is down, access roads don’t get as much attention, because they’re private roads maintained by the oil companies.

“And the mesquite at well sites is so tough that branches, roots – sometimes even the thorns – can go right through a tire.”

have to find tires that work well in a variety of conditions, give them good care, and be ready to replace them as fast as we can.”

What are most of your customers using?
“The Bridgestone M843 and M844 are working well for us. We use the M843 as an all-position tire, and the wide base M844 where we need flotation, to keep from sinking into sand, and to handle heavy front axles.”

Do you use different tires for different conditions?

“You could never afford to have all the different equipment and tires you’d need. We have to find tires that work well in a variety of conditions, give them good care, and be ready to replace them as fast as we can.”

What are most of your customers using?
“The Bridgestone M843 and M844 are working well for us. We use the M843 as an all-position tire, and the wide base M844 where we need flotation, to keep from sinking into sand, and to handle heavy front axles.”

How heavy are loads in the fields?

Joe Cates, truck pusher, FWA Peterson Drilling, (A UTI company), Midland, Texas: “We just moved a derrick that weighed about 130,000 lbs. We used two trucks to do it.”

How did that work?
“We put the trucks back to back, with the derrick between them. One truck drove forward and the other backward, about a mile or so, to a new drilling site.”

How do you get the derrick onto the trucks?
“We use ‘gin trucks’ with winches to lift each end. The derrick is so heavy that the front tires of the gin trucks come right off the ground while they’re lifting.”

Who does your tire work?
“We check air pressures every day, but Buster does the rest. He has a man who comes out every Saturday, and Buster’s here several times a week checking for wear and damage. We pretty much rely on him to get us the right tires, to change them when they need it, and to get us a replacement – quick – if we lose one.
“You can’t sit. There’s too much money out here to sit. There are no extra trucks. If a tire goes down, we start losing money, right now. And if one truck’s down, it may prevent other trucks and crewmembers from working.
“We can’t afford downtime. So we can’t afford tire problems.”