Extracting oil can be difficult at times but not with directional drilling. This is a technique that is used by companies who extract oil to gain a good amount of oil. This type of drilling is also known as directional boring. Most of the oil wells are positioned near a targeted reservoir. Therefore, to access them, it involves drilling vertically from the surface through the well below. Though, this type of drilling is different because it involves drilling at a non-vertical angle. Hence, this type of drilling goes straight down instead of moving at any angle. A special factor that not a lot of people know about this drilling is that it is not only used for oil and gas extraction but, is also used in the installation of utility pipelines and conduits.
There are numerous benefits of this drilling but, the main benefit is that it allows these companies to exploit numerous oil reservoirs within one single well. Hence, this eliminates the need to drill again and again in different places. This also helps reduce the costs of drilling. Moreover, this type of drilling also increases the efficiency of oil and gas extraction. Furthermore, as this drilling can gather a good amount of oil and gas from drilling once, it also does not cause much harm to the environment. The second main benefit of using this drilling has that it reduces soil disturbance. That is because using this drilling will reduce the number of surfaces well used and this can also make the oil or gas extraction process less disruptive to the people living nearby.
The new modern methods in use
The practice of this drilling has been in use since the 1920s. Though during that time, the measures taken were not secure and they were also sometimes inaccurate. However, now there are using modern technologies to improve this method and also its accuracy while being safe. These new technologies are hydraulic jets. The function of this machinery is that it adjusts and guides the drill direction. There are further some measures taken to improve this technique as well. Furthermore, there are drill operators. These use computers to adjust the angle of the drill bit in real-time. Hence, they can also use GPS signals to locate the exact location of an oil or gas field.
This has further increased its reliability and accuracy. They now also use advanced software programs. Like engineers can create 3-D models of the oil and gas fields to determine the best location for the well. By doing this, they can also see the best entry point for the drilling to take place. This type of drilling is mainly used where the underground reservoirs are not in the right shape or they are abnormal-looking. It is also used where vertical entry is impractical. Moreover, they are also used in those areas where concerns are expressed by residents living near these surface drill sites. Lastly, the length of the drilling is determined by the specific site and where the drilling is taking place. Then only, they will come to know how far the drilling can go.