I read in the news the other day that America may pass Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest producer of oil and gas. This certainly comes as a pleasant surprise to those of us who lived through previous booms and subsequent busts. It’s kinda like the old West Texas bumper sticker that read, “Lord, give us one more boom, we promise not to waste it away,” or words to that effect.
We can thank American ingenuity and leading edge technology for that. Although little noticed by the public, directional drilling has made many known, but marginal fields productive. Drillers have always been able to bend the drill pipe “around the corner,” but navigation has been the challenge. Major companies such as Baker Hughes and Schlumberger have put billions of dollars into making sure the driller knows where the bit is at all times. This is no mean feat. The navigation tools are at the bottom of the drill string, and the navigator is thousands of feet above on the rig. Radio signals won’t penetrate more than a few feet underground, so that’s out. A wire from the bit to the surface is equally unworkable. The way it is done is with mud pulses. A valve in the tool opens and closes rapidly sending a dot-dash type signal up the drill pipe to be read on the floor. This technology has been around for some years, but the sophistication and range have improved dramatically. Right now, the depth limit on a well is the strength of the signal, and every generation of tools gets better.