Interviewer(s): S. Wiltz and D. DiTucci. Lafayette, LA

Affiliation: University of Louisiana at Lafayette

One of three boys, Mr. Bill Estevens was born in New Orleans in 1948. His father was a salesman from Avondale, Louisiana and his mother was from Thibodaux, Louisiana. He spent his childhood and youth moving around with his family in Florida and later southern Louisiana; he graduated from Thibodaux Central Catholic High School in 1966. He spent a year up at Michigan State, but didn't like it, so came back to LSU for a year. In the face of war, assassinations, and no money, he left school and went to work for Hycatector, a mud logging company. After that he worked for year for Magcobar as a drilling fluid sales representative; after finding himself unsuited for the life of a salesman, he went to work for Hycalog. After he left Hycalog in about 1973, he got a job with Nitrogen Oil Well Service Company (Nowsco). In 1974-75, he decided he had enough of that work and enrolled at the University of New Orleans (UNO), where he spent two years in the Communications Department and worked on and edited the school newspaper. After he left school, he went to work for IMCO (part of Halliburton) as a mud logger. He was laid off from IMCO in 1980 and got a job with Exlog (Exploration Logging Company); a year later he received an associates degree in petroleum engineering technology at Nicholls State. During the interview he provides detailed descriptions of the mud loggers jobs and how they evolved over time with increasing technology.