Drilling Technology

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Under construction - Michael Aouad

Description:

Oil (also known as crude oil) is a fossil fuel found largely in vast underground deposits. Oil and its byproducts (natural gas, gasoline, kerosene, asphalt, and fuel oil, among others) did not have any real economic value until the middle of the nineteenth century when drilling was first used as a method to obtain it. Today, oil is produced on every continent but Antarctica. Despite increasingly sophisticated methods of locating possible deposits and improved removal techniques, oil is still obtained by drilling.

In the 1850s, crude oil was still obtained by skimming it off the tops of ponds. Since oil from whales was becoming scarce as the giant mammals were hunted almost to extinction, oil producers began to look elsewhere to extract oil. In 1859, while working for the Seneca Oil Company in Titusville, Pennsylvania, Edwin L. Drake and his crew drilled the first modern oil well. They struck oil almost 70 feet (21 meters) down. America's oil boom, and the world's oil industry, was launched.

As the demand for oil soared wells became commonplace and the technology to access more oil resources developed. Advancements in technology allowed for reservoirs to be accessed with less wells, reduced low production rates, allowed greater access to reservoirs in vastly different environments and reduced the costs involved in oil production. As an example the most advanced rotary cone rock bits presently available can drill about 80 percent faster than bits from the 1920s. At that time, well depths reached about 8,200 feet (2,500 meters). Today's drills can reach down more than 30,000 feet (9,150 meters).

Enablers:

  • Cost
  • Oil Price
  • Safety

Inhibitors:

  • Oil Price
  • Renewable energy demand over traditional fossil fuels

Paradigms:

Experts:

Timing:

  • 1848 The first modern oil well is drilled in Asia: on the Aspheron Peninsula northeast of Baku3.
  • 1854 The first oil wells in Europe: drilled 30 to 50 metres deep at Bobrka, Poland3.
  • 1858 The first oil well in North America: drilled in Oil Springs, Ontario, Canada3.
  • 1859 Edwin L. Drake opens the first commercially successful oil well in the United States: drilled for the sole purpose of finding oil. The drilling of the Drake Well begins an international search for petroleum3.
  • 1928 Portable Offshore Drilling: Texas oilman Louis Giliasso creates an efficient portable method of offshore drilling by mounting a derrick and drilling outfit onto a submersible barge. The transportable barge allows a rig to be erected in as little as a day, which makes for easier exploration of the Texas and Louisiana coastal wetlands1.
  • 1928 First recorded true horizontal well drilled near Texon Texas2.
  • 1944 Horizontal well drilled at 500 feet in the Franklin Heavy Oil Field, Venango County, Pennsylvania2.
  • 1947 First commercial oil well out of sight of land: A consortium of oil companies led by Kerr-McGee drills the world’s first commercial oil well out of sight of land in the Gulf of Mexico, 10.5 miles offshore and 45 miles south of Morgan City, Louisiana1.
  • 1955 First jack-up oil-drilling rig: The first jack-up oil-drilling rig is designed for offshore exploration. The rig features long legs that can be lowered into the seabed to a depth of 500 feet, allowing the platform to be raised to various heights above the level of the water1.
  • 1980s Horizontal drilling becomes economically viable: the advent of improved downhole drilling motors and the invention of downhole telemetry equipment, made horizonntal drilling technology commercially viable1.
  • 1990s New tools and techniques to reduce the costs and risks of drilling: The combined efforts of private industry, the Department of Energy, and national laboratories such as Argonne and Lawrence Livermore result in the introduction of several new tools and techniques designed to reduce the costs and risks of drilling, including reducing potential damage to the geological formation and improving environmental protection. Among such tools are the near-bit sensor, which gathers data from just behind the drill bit and transmits it to the surface, and carbon dioxide/sand fracturing stimulation, a technique that allows for non-damaging stimulation of a natural gas formation1.
  • 2000 Hoover-Diana goes into operation: The Hoover-Diana, a 63,000-ton deep-draft caisson vessel, goes into operation in the Gulf of Mexico. A joint venture by Exxon Mobil and BP, it is a production platform mounted atop a floating cylindrical concrete tube anchored in 4,800 feet of water. The entire structure is 83 stories high, with 90 percent of it below the surface. Within half a year it is producing 20,000 barrels of oil and 220 million cubic feet of gas a day. Two pipelines carry the oil and gas to shore1.


Footnotes

Web Resources:

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