ARTHUR LUBINSKI

1910-1996

BY KENNETH A. BLENKARN

BORN IN ANTWERP, BELGIUM, and educated at the University of Brussels, Arthur Lubinski graduated in 1934 with the degree ingenieur civil mecanicien et electricien. Before World War II he worked on the development of devices generating motor fuel from coal.

Coming to the United States in 1947, he began a long and distinguished career of engineering development in the petroleum industry. He served in both supervisory and individual researcher roles. At the time of his retirement in 1975, he was special research associate at the Tulsa Research Center of Amoco Corporation, now BP-Amoco. He continued an active development and consulting practice, mainly for equipment manufacturers, until shortly before his death in 1996.

In the early 1950s Arthur focused his thorough grounding in applied mechanics on the behavior and performance of oil well tubulars such as well casing and drill pipe. Many of his findings were strikingly counterintuitive and significantly improved the engineering and operating practices of the industry. Early on, Arthur advocated placement of long strings of large diameter, minimal clearance “drill collars” immediately above the drill bit. Critics called this notion a certain guarantee to cause “stuck pipe,” but Arthur's findings eventually formed standard industry practice, with great economic benefits. Lubinski's Law said you can't drill a truly vertical hole, especially in dipping formations. Al-