Deep Down – Kansas Fishing Tool Clears Path for Drilling Rig Operations

Timing couldn’t have been more critical for business owners Jerry and Karen Steffan. The bottom dropped out of the oil market just as they opened their start-up company, Kansas Fishing Tool Inc., in October 1981. They were denied a $100,000 business loan during that troublesome economic time and made a decision to deplete their life savings of $30,000 in order to proceed with their business plan anyway.

Rig Readiness – Kansas Fishing Tool operator Brandon McDonald left converses with a Murfin Drilling Company worker while preparing a new well for drilling east of Great Bend. Said Jerry, “I tell our fishermen, ‘treat that well like you own it because if you approach every job in that manner, then you will effectively perform in a timely manner for each drilling company.” Jerry said that fishermen must rely on “down-hole common sense and mechanical aptitude” because fishing objects out of a deep hole in the ground is rarely by the book and never an exact science. “It’s a challenging job,” said Jerry. They are counting on you getting things out of the hole for them and sometimes, those things don’t want to come out very easily. But it’s those unique challenges that keep each job interesting because no two jobs are the same.”

While the couple was forced to scale back on their new venture, bear-market timing wound up reaping oil-bust blessings on the Steffans.

“The oil fields were shutting down and people were shedding equipment like crazy,” remembered Jerry. “Good equipment, too, it wasn’t junk. It helped us to get off the ground. We started out with what we had as far as money and grew as we could.”

“If you were to go to an auction nowadays, you would pay higher prices because a lot of those guys don’t have easy access to get the tools, so the used market is competitive” added Karen. “We were able to get tools at a good price when we needed them most.”

Finding the silver lining during lean economic times seams as tricky as fishing objects and debris from a hole more than 3,000 feet below the earth to uncover hidden obstructions or find lost items, which is essentially what Kansas Fishing Tool does. Most people have no concept – or even the wrong concept – of the fishing tool business, especially people who call searching for the latest fishing rods, reels and tackle. Oil field supervisors, however, view fishing-tool operators as pinch-time problem-solvers anytime those objects hidden in the depths below stop well drilling operation.

When an oil field wrench, string of pipe, or a radioactive source gets lost in the well, KFT gets a call to recover them. When mysterious items are obstructing the drilling process, or cement from a casing squeeze job or any other debris needs washed out of the hole, drilling companies rely on KFT to clear the way before drilling can occur again.

Perfect Partners – Karen and Jerry Steffan stand in their shop at Kansas Fishing Tool Inc., 812 Patton Road. Behind the couple are just a fraction of the shelves that contain fishing tools for the business.  “I could not have done it without Karen,” said Jerry. “She handles the paperwork side of the business, something I’m not very good at. I couldn’t ask for a better partner and truly, it’s the best arrangement that could have happened for our business.”

“Usually they aren’t very happy when they call us,” said Karen. “There’s a problem that has to be handled somewhere.”

Because of the many and varied predicaments that occur around the state and regionally, it takes thousands of special tools and equipment, and anywhere between a few hours and more than a month to be able to successfully handle every job. When there are problems in the oil patch, a treasure chest of tools becomes an arsenal of weapons for fishermen to conquer whatever hides and hampers production beneath. There are overshots, spears, magnets, grapples, couplings, millings, wash-over pipe, tar impression and lead impression blocks and more. Tools come in many shapes, lengths, diameters and sizes. Each tool specializes in attaching from either the inside or outside with a multitude of attachments and accessories to handle even the most difficult job.

Swivel and Pumping – On the trailer at the new well site sits a Kansas Fishing Tool mud pump and power swivel, which utilizes a hydraulic unit to turn the pipe that’s drilling the cement in order to get down to the formation where the oil is located. The cuttings from the operation are washed into a mud tank for another company to truck to a designated dumping site.

“Every tool does something different,” explained Karen. “We have tools that sit on the rack for years until somebody needs them for special jobs.”

“We’ve used all these tools in here, sometime or another,” added Jerry.

To begin the business, the Steffans purchased a small assortment of primary tools and operated their business from their home. They would drive to Oklahoma on a regular basis to sub-rent tools from another fishing company and then drive the tools to the job site, ready to work by 8 the next morning. Even with the tool auctions working in their favor, business was slow initially.

Welding Away – KFT’s Scott Hebblethwaite welds tungsten carbide with a nickel silver brass base to a tool. While the tools themselves are purchased, primarily from Houston, most of change-over, milling tools and other accessories that go on the tools are machined by RMS LLC or welded by KFT. “What Scott does is difficult,” said Jerry. “He’s caught on the quickest of anyone I’ve every taught to weld those. I used to have to do all the welding, but having qualified people like him allows me to attend to other matters of our business”

“I can’t deny when we first started, that first month, we had $750 worth of business and I thought, ‘Oh, what did we do?’” said Jerry. “But business picked up eventually.”

The couple moved their business to west 10th Street after a few years, then built a new building on Mac Arthur Road in 1985 before moving to its current location in 2000, which once housed their fishing tool competition.

After the initial downturn, the fishing tool business steadied for a few years before hitting another slump in 1985. Work was so slow in 1986 that the Steffans would check the telephone for dial tone when no one called for several days in a row. But they held on, rode the up-and-down current of the fishing tool industry, collected more tools and business finally spiked in the summer of 2000. The workload has grown steadily ever since, said Jerry.

Water Work – Brett Behrends power sprays tools before checking them and putting them back on the shelves for re-use. Today, there are few fishing tool companies in the region, but 27 years ago when KFT began; it competed with NL, which was purchased by Weatherford International Oil Field Services. Weatherford moved out of Great Bend in 1998 and KFT moved into the same building where Jerry began his fishing tool career in 1974, working for Rucker Acme and then National Lead (NL) for eight years before striking out on his own. From their house, the Steffans moved to the back side of the building where Pro-Tint  now is on west 10th Street, then built a new building in 1985 where Simpson Farm Enterprises Inc. is now located. Though in disrepair at the time, KFT moved into its current location in 2000 because of its location and the specialized equipment that was already in place. “It had an inside-outside crane, and a separating unit for oil and water to allow water to go into the sewer system, which was what we were looking into adding to our previous location.”

It’s a different economic landscape than the Steffans faced nearly three decades earlier. Starting with a shoestring budget and a prayer they have parlayed their venture into a company today that employs four fishermen, six drivers and a two-man machine shop.

Being one of only three fishing tool companies serving the state, KFT’s 27 years in business solidifies it as a mainstay within the industry.

“We’ve always been careful in business,” said Jerry. “You learn that it’s not handed to you and you have to be prepared for the next downturn. We try not to hire too many, but that means the ones who are here work extra hours during busy times. The key is to have the right people and try to hang on to them. Right now, we’ve got one of the best crews we’ve ever had.”

Helping Jerry and Karen with operations today are Bill Seller, manager; Leroy Wessel; Brandon McDonald, Aaron Apley all fishermen. Drivers are Josh Post, shop foreman; John Robinson, Jim Slater, Shawn Unruh, David Gossett; and Scott Hebblethwaite, who also welds for the company. Adam and Brett Behrends, have returned from college the past three years to help the operation.

Long Haul – KFT driver Jim Slater prepares to haul tools and wash-over pipe to a job. A drilling company rented the tools to do a wash-down, in order to re-enter an old well that has been shut down for many years. The company was drilling out the old well and hit junk in the hole, so it is using KFT’s equipment to clear the area so it can reach down to about 1,500 feet where the pipe has been cut. From that point, the drilling company will re-enter the pipe, clean the well at the bottom and then run more casing back into the well and then discover whether the well is a producer once again. “Technology is available now that drillers didn’t have before,” explained Karen. “They can do frac recovery jobs on wells that might be the difference why that well can be a good producer today.” Added Jerry, “The re-entry work has been active for the last couple of years. Companies have been doing well and it’s given them extra money to spend on some of these previous wells. With new technology, they can perforate other zones in the well and have a better producer.”

And three years ago, KFT created RMS Machine LLC to handle machining work for the tools. Ryan Steffan, Jerry’s and Karen’s son, manages that operation, and is helped by machinist Dustin Brown.

“Amazingly, we are still handling about 95 percent of what calls in,” said Jerry. “It makes us get after it and hustle. We may have to go out late and get parts off of one well and get them in here, clean them up, check them and have them ready for the next morning. Sometimes we have to tell them they have to wait, or go to our competition. Most of the time, they wait and that’s a compliment to our crew.”