Directional drilling is a method for drilling oil, natural gas and even water that is relatively new. It’s important for exploiting the natural resources needed to power and run the world.
It wasn’t until the 1920’s that the oil industry became mindful of directional drilling. The attention to it was prompted by lawsuits by people claiming others had crossed property lines to drill. For the first time people really faced the fact that wells aren’t only vertical.
One of the most important benefits of directional drilling is reaching oil that would not be practical to drill vertically. This includes oil and other resources that are under populated areas. Often oil is found under a mountain or rocky terrain that would be hard to drill through by conventional means.
Another benefit of directional drilling is that one well head, or rig, can be used to reach multiple oil deposits. This decreases environmental impact. That’s important because of a lot of resistance to disturb the wilderness. It’s more likely to get drilling approved when the impact is low. It also means saving time and money. It decreases the number of rigs that have to be built. It also decreases the number of moves that have to be made of bulky drilling equipment.
Directional drilling helps in the case of a blow out. That’s when pressure forces materials, usually gas, up through the drill string in an uncontrolled manner. Drilling sideways into the the reservoir then pumping in heavy fluid will relieve the pressure. That means what would formerly result in a lost well can now be salvaged. Drilling can continue.
In the early days of directional drilling it was far slower than vertical drilling. That was because it was difficult to measure progress and direction. In addition, all the drill pipes had to be removed from the ground in order to change direction. That wasted a lot of time. But modern tools and techniques for measuring and steering the drill mean the speed has greatly increased.
Directional drilling is sometimes used to steal oil. In 1990 Iraq claimed Kuwait was stealing oil from across the border. This prompted Iraq to invade Kuwait. It led to the first Gulf War. It’s unlikely that Kuwait was stealing oil. At the time the methods and technologies weren’t very advanced. It would have taken very conspicuous equipment near the border. None was seen or found.
Directional drilling has greatly increased the amount of oil drilling can reach. That’s a good thing, because demand for oil keeps rising.
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