OIL DRILLING PROCESS COMPLETE

Forming Oil
Oil comes from the remains of tiny plants and animals (plankton) that died in ancient seas between 10
million and 600 million years ago. After the organisms died, they sank into the sand and mud at the bottom
of the sea.
Over the years, the organisms decayed in the sedimentary layers. In these layers, there was little or no
oxygen present. So microorganisms broke the remains into carbon-rich compounds that formed organic
layers. The organic material mixed with the sediments, forming fine-grained shale, or source rock. As new
sedimentary layers were deposited, they exerted intense pressure and heat on the source rock. The heat
and pressure distilled the organic material into crude oil and natural gas. The oil flowed from the source rock
and accumulated in thicker, more porous limestone or sandstone, called reservoir rock. Movements in the
Earth trapped the oil and natural gas in the reservoir rocks between layers of impermeable rock, or cap rock,
such as granite or marble.
These movements of the Earth include:
Folding - Horizontal movements press inward and move the rock layers upward into a fold or anticline.
Faulting - The layers of rock crack, and one side shifts upward or downward.
Pinching out - A layer of impermeable rock is squeezed upward into the reservoir rock.

Locating Oil

Photo courtesy the Energy Institute

Searching for oil over water using seismology
Whether employed directly by an oil company or under contract from a private firm, geologists are the ones
responsible for finding oil. Their task is to find the right conditions for an oil trap -- the right source rock,
reservoir rock and entrapment. Many years ago, geologists interpreted surface features, surface rock and
soil types, and perhaps some small core samples obtained by shallow drilling. Modern oil geologists also
examine surface rocks and terrain, with the additional help of satellite images. However, they also use a
variety of other methods to find oil. They can use sensitive gravity meters to measure tiny changes in the
Earth's gravitational field that could indicate flowing oil, as well as sensitive magnetometers to measure tiny
changes in the Earth's magnetic field caused by flowing oil. They can detect the smell of hydrocarbons using
sensitive electronic noses called sniffers. Finally, and most commonly, they use seismology, creating shock
waves that pass through hidden rock layers and interpreting the waves that are reflected back to the
surface.
In seismic surveys, a shock wave is created by the following:
• Compressed-air gun - shoots pulses of air into the water (for exploration over water)
• Thumper truck - slams heavy plates into the ground (for exploration over land)
 • Explosives - detonated after being drilled into the ground (for exploration over land) or thrown
overboard (for exploration over water)
The shock waves travel beneath the surface of the Earth and are reflected back by the various rock layers.
The reflections travel at different speeds depending upon the type or density of rock layers through which
they must pass. Sensitive microphones or vibration detectors detect the reflections of the shock waves
-- hydrophones over water, seismometers over land. Seismologists interpret the readings for signs of oil and
gas traps.

Oil Drilling Preparation

Once the site has been selected, scientists survey the area to determine its boundaries, and conduct
environmental impact studies if necessary. The oil company may need lease agreements, titles and right-of
way accesses before drilling the land. For off-shore sites, legal jurisdiction must be determined.
After the legal issues are settled, the crew goes about preparing the land:
1. The land must be cleared and leveled, and access roads may be built.
2. Because water is used in drilling, there must be a source of water nearby. If there is no natural
source, the crew drills a water well.
3. The crew digs a reserve pit, which is used to dispose of rock cuttings and drilling mud during the
drilling process, and lines it with plastic to protect the environment. If the site is an ecologically
sensitive area, such as a marsh or wilderness, then the cuttings and mud must be disposed of
offsite -- trucked away instead of placed in a pit.
Once the land has been prepared, the crew digs several holes to make way for the rig and the main hole. A
rectangular pit called a cellar is dug around the location of the actual drilling hole. The cellar provides a work
space around the hole for the workers and drilling accessories. The crew then begins drilling the main hole,
often with a small drill truck rather than the main rig. The first part of the hole is larger and shallower than the
main portion, and is lined with a large-diameter conductor pipe. The crew digs additional holes off to the side
to temporarily store equipment -- when these holes are finished, the rig equipment can be brought in and set
up.
Depending upon the remoteness of the drill site and its access, it may be necessary to bring in equipment by
truck, helicopter or barge. Some rigs are built on ships or barges for work on inland water where there is no
foundation to support a rig (as in marshes or lakes).
In the next section, we'll look at the major systems of an oil rig.
Oil Rig Systems

Anatomy of an oil rig

Once the equipment is at the site, the crew sets the rig up. Here are the major systems of a land oil rig:
• Power system
o large diesel engines - burn diesel-fuel oil to provide the main source of power
o electrical generators - powered by the diesel engines to provide electrical power
• Mechanical system - driven by electric motors
o hoisting system - used for lifting heavy loads; consists of a mechanical winch
(drawworks) with a large steel cable spool, a block-and-tackle pulley and a receiving
storage reel for the cable
o turntable - part of the drilling apparatus
• Rotating equipment - used for rotary drilling
o swivel - large handle that holds the weight of the drill string; allows the string to rotate and
makes a pressure-tight seal on the hole
o kelly - four- or six-sided pipe that transfers rotary motion to the turntable and drill string
o turntable or rotary table - drives the rotating motion using power from electric motors
o drill string - consists of drill pipe (connected sections of about 30 feet (10 meters)
and drill collars (larger diameter, heavier pipe that fits around the drill pipe and places
weight on the drill bit)
o drill bit(s) - end of the drill that actually cuts up the rock; comes in many shapes and
materials (tungsten carbide steel, diamond) that are specialized for various drilling tasks
and rock formations
• Casing - large-diameter concrete pipe that lines the drill hole, prevents the hole from collapsing,
and allows drilling mud to circulate

•
Photo courtesy the Energy Institute
Mud circulation in the hole
Circulation system - pumps drilling mud (mixture of water, clay, weighting material and chemicals, used to
lift rock cuttings from the drill bit to the surface) under pressure through the kelly, rotary table, drill pipes and
drill collars
o pump - sucks mud from the mud pits and pumps it to the drilling apparatus
o pipes and hoses - connects pump to drilling apparatus
o mud-return line - returns mud from the hole
o shale shaker - shaker/sieve that separates rock cuttings from the mud
o shale slide - conveys cuttings to the reserve pit
o reserve pit - collects rock cuttings separated from the mud
o mud pits - where drilling mud is mixed and recycled
o mud-mixing hopper - where new mud is mixed and then sent to the mud pits
• Derrick - support structure that holds the drilling apparatus; tall enough to allow new sections of
drill pipe to be added to the drilling apparatus as drilling progresses
• Blowout preventer - high-pressure valves (located under the land rig or on the sea floor) that seal
the high-pressure drill lines and relieve pressure when necessary to prevent a blowout
(uncontrolled gush of gas or oil to the surface, often associated with fire)
The Oil Drilling Process

Photo courtesy ConocoPhillips

Rotary workers trip drill pipe.
The crew sets up the rig and starts the drilling operations. First, from the starter hole, the team drills a
surface hole down to a pre-set depth, which is somewhere above where they think the oil trap is located.
There are five basic steps to drilling the surface hole:
1. Place the drill bit, collar and drill pipe in the hole.
2. Attach the kelly and turntable, and begin drilling.
3. As drilling progresses, circulate mud through the pipe and out of the bit to float the rock cuttings out
of the hole.
4. Add new sections (joints) of drill pipes as the hole gets deeper.
5. Remove (trip out) the drill pipe, collar and bit when the pre-set depth (anywhere from a few hundred
to a couple-thousand feet) is reached.
Once they reach the pre-set depth, they must run and cement the casing -- place casing-pipe sections into
the hole to prevent it from collapsing in on itself. The casing pipe has spacers around the outside to keep it
centered in the hole.
New Drilling Technologies
The U.S. Department of Energy and the oil industry are working on new ways to drill oil, including horizontal drilling
techniques, to reach oil under ecologically-sensitive areas, and using lasers to drill oil wells.
The casing crew puts the casing pipe in the hole. The cement crew pumps cement down the casing pipe
using a bottom plug, a cement slurry, a top plug and drill mud. The pressure from the drill mud causes the
cement slurry to move through the casing and fill the space between the outside of the casing and the hole.
Finally, the cement is allowed to harden and then tested for such properties as hardness, alignment and a
proper seal.
In the next section we'll find out what happens once the drill bit reaches the final depth.

Testing for Oil

Blowouts and Fires
In the movies, you see oil gushing (a blowout), and perhaps even a fire, when drillers reach the final depth. These are
actually dangerous conditions, and are (hopefully) prevented by the blowout preventer and the pressure of the drilling
mud. In most wells, the oil flow must be started by acidizing or fracturing the well.
Drilling continues in stages: The crew drills, then runs and cements new casings, then drills again. When the
rock cuttings from the mud reveal the oil sand from the reservoir rock, the crew may have reached the well's
final depth. At this point, crew members remove the drilling apparatus from the hole and perform several
tests to confirm this finding:
 • Well logging - lowering electrical and gas sensors into the hole to take measurements of the rock
formations there
• Drill-stem testing - lowering a device into the hole to measure the pressures, which will reveal
whether reservoir rock has been reached
• Core samples - taking samples of rock to look for characteristics of reservoir rock
Once they've reached the final depth, the crew completes the well to allow oil to flow into the casing in a
controlled manner. First, they lower a perforating gun into the well to the production depth. The gun has
explosive charges to create holes in the casing through which oil can flow. After the casing has been
perforated, they run a small-diameter pipe (tubing) into the hole as a conduit for oil and gas to flow up
through the well. A device called a packer is run down the outside of the tubing. When the packer is set at
the production level, it's expanded to form a seal around the outside of the tubing. Finally, they connect a
multi-valved structure called a Christmas tree to the top of the tubing and cement it to the top of the casing.
The Christmas tree allows them to control the flow of oil from the well.
After the well is completed, the crew must start the flow of oil into the well. For limestone reservoir rock, acid
is pumped down the well and out the perforations. The acid dissolves channels in the limestone that lead oil
into the well. For sandstone reservoir rock, a specially blended fluid containing proppants (sand, walnut
shells, aluminum pellets) is pumped down the well and out the perforations. The pressure from this fluid
makes small fractures in the sandstone that allow oil to flow into the well, while the proppants hold these
fractures open. Once the oil is flowing, the oil rig is removed from the site and production equipment is set
up to extract the oil from the well.

Offshore Oil Drilling

Not all oil is accessible on land or in shallow waters. You can find some oil deposits buried deep under the
ocean floor. Reaching these oil deposits is dangerous, but if done correctly, it can also be rewarding. If
things go wrong, however, the results can be deadly both for oil workers and the surrounding environment.
Using sonic equipment, oil companies determine the drilling sites most likely to produce oil. Then they use a
mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) to dig the initial well. Some units are converted into production rigs,
meaning they switch from drilling for oil to capturing oil once it's found. Most of the time, the oil company will
replace the MODU with a more permanent oil production rig to capture oil.
There are four main types of MODUs:
• A submersible MODU usually consists of a barge that rests on the sea floor at depths of around
30 to 35 feet (9.1 to 10.7 meters). On the barge's deck are steel posts that extend above the water
line. A drilling platform rests on top of the steel posts. These rigs are typically used in areas with
calm water.
• A jackup is a rig that sits on top of a floating barge. A ship tows the barge to the drilling site. Once
positioned, the jackup can extend legs down to the sea floor. The legs are loaded in such a way
that they don't penetrate the floor. Once each leg is secure, the jackup continues to ratchet the legs
so that the platform rises above the water level. This keeps the rig safe from tidal motions and
waves. Jackups can operate in depths of up to 525 feet (160 meters).
• Drill ships are ships that have a drilling rig on the top deck. The drill operates through a hole in the
hull. Drill ships can pilot to the drill site and then use a combination of anchors and propellers to
correct for drift as the rig drills for oil. They can operate in deep water conditions.
• Semisubmersibles float on the surface of the ocean on top of huge, submerged pontoons. Some
have propulsion systems, which allow them to navigate to drilling sites under their own power while
others require a second vessel to tow them to the right location. Most use several anchors -- up to
a dozen -- that help maintain the structure's orientation. Computers control the tension on each
anchor chain to correct for drift. Some can convert from drilling rigs to production rigs, reducing the
need for a second rig to take its place once oil is found.
The MODU's job is to drill down into the ocean's floor to find oil deposits. The part of the drill that extends
below the deck and through the water is called the riser. The riser allows for drilling fluids to move between
the floor and the rig. Engineers lower a drill string -- a series of pipes designed to drill down to the oil
deposit -- through the riser.
At the sea floor is the blowout preventer (BOP). The blowout preventer has a pair of hydraulically-powered
clamps that can close off the pipe leading up to the rig in the case of a blowout. As the rig drills down,
engineers must add more pipe to the drill string. Each section of pipe is about 30 feet long (9.1 meters).
To add stability to the well, the engineers use metal casings, much as they do with land-based oil rigs.
These casings help keep the well from collapsing in on itself. Each casing is lined with cement walls.
Casings get narrower as the well gets deeper. Oil companies use progressively smaller drill bits as the well's
depth increases. At each annulus -- the spot where a narrower casing joins with a wider one -- engineers
use a liner hanger O-ring to seal the two sections together.
When the MODU hits oil, engineers must seal the well to prepare it for a production rig. The engineers will
use a pair of plugs to seal off the well bore. The bottom plug sits near the oil deposit. Drilling mud or
seawater provides the pressure to hold the plug in place while the engineers place a top plug to cap the oil
well. Then the well is ready for a production rig to take over. Offshore production rigs work in a similar way to
land-based oil rigs.
With all of this oil-drilling technology in use, and new methods in development, the question remains: Will we
have enough oil to meet our needs? Current estimates suggest that we have enough oil for about 63 to 95
years to come, based on current and future finds and present demands.