Technology Oil Sharing Information

Oil drilling has been carried out by humans for more than a century and a half. Since then crude oil is processed into kerosene which is used for lighting needs.

The rapid progress of the automotive industry since the early 20th century has also boosted the petroleum mining industry. Oil production around 1990 was 150 million barrels worldwide, increasing rapidly to one million barrels in 1925.

The increase in world oil production is also supported by innovation in oil drilling technology. One of the oldest and most widely used technologies at that time was the Rotary Drill, which was first introduced in 1880. This technology used a large rotating drill to dig into the ground.

Rotary Drill is just the beginning of various oil drilling technology innovations which were later created in the 20th century. These innovations increase efficiency in the petroleum production process.

Here are other modern petroleum drilling technologies:

Offshore Drilling
Before offshore drilling was discovered, petroleum drilling had been carried out on the seafront since 1880. This technology then developed to be able to carry out offshore drilling for the first time in 1947.

Since then this technology has continued to develop, until further adapting the use of remote robotic vehicles for diving needs. This robot technology is a distinct advantage because diving on the seabed is very dangerous if done by humans.

2. Hydraulic Fracturing

The technology of hydraulic fracturing or commonly known as fracking, succeeded in disrupting the petroleum industry by bringing its price down drastically in the mid-2010s. However, this technology actually started to be developed in the 1940s.

This fracking technology makes it possible to more effectively extract petroleum reserves in oil wells that are separated by narrow rock structures. The rock structure has a narrow gap which, if sucked directly using old technology, will not get a fast flow of petroleum.

Hydraulic fracturing uses a mixture of water with certain chemical liquids to be injected with a certain pressure into rock structures that trap petroleum reserves, so that fractures are formed hundreds of meters larger. To prevent this fraction from returning to its original position, a liquid propane mixture of a special fluid, sand, and pellets is used. With this, trapped petroleum will be easily pumped to the surface.

3. Seismic Imaging

In the past, finding an oil well was quite simple, just by looking for the ground that emitted the oil bubbles. At that time it was quite easy to find it because there were still many oil wells close to the ground. But of course this method is very ancient, and cannot be used to find oil reserves hidden deep in the ground.

One innovation that is also very influential in the world of oil drilling is 3-dimensional seismic imaging technology. This technology uses the principle of sound waves reflected by various types of material surfaces in various directions. The sound signal emitted by the source is directed to the target, which is then captured by a special device called a geophone. With a sophisticated computerized process, the reflected sound can be translated into a 3-dimensional image that represents the target condition. The system will direct the operator of this tool to shift to a certain location where the image has not been captured perfectly.

However, this 3-dimensional imaging technology actually only reduces the number of initial drilling to prove the existence of oil wells. This is because seismic imaging has not yet been able to distinguish between petroleum liquids or other fluids. Further evidence is needed by sampling if by using seismic imagery it is suspected that new oil reserves have been found.

4. Measurement-While-Drilling Technology

Measurement-While-Drilling (MWD) technology seeks to answer the challenge so that when combined with seismic imaging technology it can be more effective. This MWD technology allows the operator to get real-time information about the drilling he is doing. The information he can get includes temperature, pressure in the soil, density, magnetic resonance caused by rocks in the drilling area, and so on. This technology is very important, especially for drilling operators, because they can know whether the drilling they are doing is effective and safe from explosion hazards or tool damage.

One technology within the MWD that may be particularly interesting is the way the sensors on the drill tip communicate the information they get to the surface. Instead of using a cable that certainly cannot be attached to a giant drill, MWD uses the Mud Pulse Telemetry method.

As the name implies, Mud Pulse Telemetry utilizes mud pumped downwards to capture drilling dust. Well, this mud when it reaches a special part of the sensor is made to form a binary code pulse pattern in the form of sound, which then when captured by the sensor on the surface will be translated again into many functions.

5. Horizontal Drilling

One advantage of MWD technology is the ability of the operator to be able to point the drill tip in any direction according to the data he receives in real-time. And the development of MWD technology is of course the ability to drill horizontally. Horizontal drilling technology is very important because there are more oil wells which if only mined vertically are less effective because it takes longer.

Horizontal drilling technology has actually existed since 1929, but at that time it was still very expensive so it was not economically effective. It was only when MWD technology was discovered in the 1980s that this horizontal drilling technology was widely used.