Revolutionizing Oil Drilling

Couch Oil and Gas : Revolutionizing Oil Drilling

There is increasing excitement and anticipation in the American oil industry over new oil supplies being tapped in both new sources and even places not touched in a couple of generations.

The source of this excitement comes from advances in modern drilling methods and the ability to tap new, previously-thought unattainable, reservoirs of oil. If this trend were to come to fruition, America’s dependence on foreign oil could be drastically reduced over time as new supplies could be extracted for use at relatively affordable cost. Currently, the U.S. is the highest consumer of oil in the world, easily outdistancing other nations of the developing and industrialized world. Increased demand and limited supplies—the classic recipe for increasing prices—have sent energy costs soaring in nations all over the world because of oil’s huge role in keeping the global economy humming. China and India, in particular have seen demand for oil increase rapidly in their own nations because of a need to keep developing infrastructure components.

The U.S. has developed more efficient and productive methods of drilling, namely horizontal drilling, which cuts a path parallel to the oil source before connecting near the bottom of the reservoir for more efficient and longer-lasting pull on the supply. The precision necessary for successful horizontal drilling, so elusive and expensive decades ago, has become much more refinement in recent years, and now is considered a prime innovation for making oil extraction safer, cheaper, more abundant and environmentally-friendly in the long term.

In addition, multistage hydraulic fracturing allows oil companies to crack open rock formations in various spots and collect hydrocarbons within these beds, therefore gaining access to oil supplies previously perceived of as unreachable. One example is North Dakota, which is connected to the Bakken Field, a sizeable source of oil which could, if expectations are fully realized, make the state the second-most productive oil state in the U.S. after Texas.

One of the key results from new drilling techniques such as horizontal drilling and advanced fracturing is the achievable distances for oil companies to safely reach. In decades past, horizontal drilling was considered such a complex method it lent itself to much shorter distances underground, as low as 500 feet to a few thousand feet. Today, with new processes and greater technological applications—including heat injection, vastly improved seismic imaging and better tubing—this drilling method can reach tens of thousands of feet of distance with much more dexterity and reliability, making oil supplies more accessible in areas companies deemed inefficient sources of oil decades ago.

An economic effect of new American oil supplies would be a reduction in dependence on foreign oil sources, which would not only produce more stable pricing overall but allow a measure of political security as well. Crude oil from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other Middle Eastern nations would be cut, as would Canada, which would have to find other markets—perhaps Asia—to sell its oil. Another economic effect of increased American oil supplies would be the lessening of emphasis on putting money and capital into exploring oil possibilities in the Arctic, a potentially oil-rich region but at considerable cost and difficulty.