It’s been over hundred and fifty years since man first struck oil, when Edwin Drake dug his oil well in Titusville in Pennsylvania, way back in 1859.
Since then the industry has grown dramatically with many inventions helping it along its way.
Perhaps the first and most important invention was the rotary drill which, as its name suggests, used a rotating drill bit to excavate the ground, but this was merely the start of many inventions that would see oil drilling rise to meteoric heights.
Remotely Operated Vehicles
When it became apparent that oil wells located near to the shore usually produced the most oil, prospectors looked for ways to extract oil from under the seafloor. By the 1880’s drillers were erecting wharf top rigs, but it was 1947 before an oil company built the first offshore well.
With the development of remotely operated vehicles or ROVs by the 1970’s it was possible to conduct work at depths of up to 10,000 feet.
Hydraulic fracturing
Since its development in the 1940s, hydraulic fracturing has enabled oil companies to extract oil from rocks with small ‘pores’ by injecting a solution of water and chemicals under pressure to create fractures in order to stimulate the well and drive out the trapped oil.
So that the fractures remain open and allow the oil to flow freely, a proppant (a mixture of fluid, sand and pellets) is introduced into the fissure.
Seismic Imaging
Geologists play an extremely important role in finding oil reservoirs by helping to pinpoint the location by studying rock formations and magnetic fields.
The advent of seismic imagining, based on the premise that sound either bounces off or is absorbed into different materials, meant that rock formations could be located and identified and turned into 3-D images. Although this technology isn’t foolproof, it does help to reduce the number of exploratory holes drilled.
Measurement while drilling
Despite the fact that seismic imaging represented a big step forward in locating oil reserves, drill operators didn’t fully know what to expect once they started drilling. Furthermore, it was almost impossible to know what was happening to the drill bit as the hole was being drilled.
To overcome this problem, measurement-while-drilling (MWD) technology was developed, which not only had the ability to steer the well in other directions but gave real time information regarding the status of drilling, by utilising temperature, pressure, density and the magnetic resonance of the rock being drilled. This technology improved the efficiency of drilling and prevented tool failures.
The information gained from the MWD is transmitted up to the surface by mud pulse telemetry, via a mud slurry column which is the perfect medium for sending binary code mud pulses to the surface to be decoded.
Horizontal Drilling
As many oil reservoirs lie horizontally within the rock strata, vertical wells are not the most efficient way to extract oil.
With the development of MWD technology and its ability to help operators steer drills in different directions, it became possible to drill horizontal wells.
This was a significant step, as it not only increased the productivity of the well but it also enabled the safe digging of wells which were located under environmentally sensitive land, making horizontal drilling a much more viable option.
Jamie has a passion for all kinds of construction, but particularly the construction of oil rigs. He's spent quite a bit of time learning all about the oil industry and in his spare time puts this to use by writing articles for a number of companies including Piling-Equipment-Ltd.com
Since then the industry has grown dramatically with many inventions helping it along its way.
Perhaps the first and most important invention was the rotary drill which, as its name suggests, used a rotating drill bit to excavate the ground, but this was merely the start of many inventions that would see oil drilling rise to meteoric heights.
Remotely Operated Vehicles
When it became apparent that oil wells located near to the shore usually produced the most oil, prospectors looked for ways to extract oil from under the seafloor. By the 1880’s drillers were erecting wharf top rigs, but it was 1947 before an oil company built the first offshore well.
With the development of remotely operated vehicles or ROVs by the 1970’s it was possible to conduct work at depths of up to 10,000 feet.
Hydraulic fracturing
Since its development in the 1940s, hydraulic fracturing has enabled oil companies to extract oil from rocks with small ‘pores’ by injecting a solution of water and chemicals under pressure to create fractures in order to stimulate the well and drive out the trapped oil.
So that the fractures remain open and allow the oil to flow freely, a proppant (a mixture of fluid, sand and pellets) is introduced into the fissure.
Seismic Imaging
Geologists play an extremely important role in finding oil reservoirs by helping to pinpoint the location by studying rock formations and magnetic fields.
The advent of seismic imagining, based on the premise that sound either bounces off or is absorbed into different materials, meant that rock formations could be located and identified and turned into 3-D images. Although this technology isn’t foolproof, it does help to reduce the number of exploratory holes drilled.
Measurement while drilling
Despite the fact that seismic imaging represented a big step forward in locating oil reserves, drill operators didn’t fully know what to expect once they started drilling. Furthermore, it was almost impossible to know what was happening to the drill bit as the hole was being drilled.
To overcome this problem, measurement-while-drilling (MWD) technology was developed, which not only had the ability to steer the well in other directions but gave real time information regarding the status of drilling, by utilising temperature, pressure, density and the magnetic resonance of the rock being drilled. This technology improved the efficiency of drilling and prevented tool failures.
The information gained from the MWD is transmitted up to the surface by mud pulse telemetry, via a mud slurry column which is the perfect medium for sending binary code mud pulses to the surface to be decoded.
Horizontal Drilling
As many oil reservoirs lie horizontally within the rock strata, vertical wells are not the most efficient way to extract oil.
With the development of MWD technology and its ability to help operators steer drills in different directions, it became possible to drill horizontal wells.
This was a significant step, as it not only increased the productivity of the well but it also enabled the safe digging of wells which were located under environmentally sensitive land, making horizontal drilling a much more viable option.
Jamie has a passion for all kinds of construction, but particularly the construction of oil rigs. He's spent quite a bit of time learning all about the oil industry and in his spare time puts this to use by writing articles for a number of companies including Piling-Equipment-Ltd.com
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