About Drilling Rigs

A drilling rig punches holes into the ground to suction out underground oil reserves to fuel the modern economy. Drilling rigs exist in many sizes, shapes and configurations, and perform a variety of similar oil-related tasks. Some drilling rigs are even used to extract underground water reserves. These installations can be small enough to fit onto the back of a light truck or as tall as apartment buildings.

Significance

Multiple drilling rigs are often installed over a single oil reservoir. The fuller the reservoir is, the less energy and other inputs are needed by the rigs. Relatively small and low-intensity drilling rigs are used at the beginning of the life of an oil reservoir. These are gradually phased out for more powerful and more numerous rigs as the reservoir pressure depletes when the amount of oil contained within it declines. The machinery also becomes more complex, as water injection and separation mechanisms are added to the installation.

Considerations

Oil companies install rigs in all parts of the world in all environments: offshore, in jungles, deserts, swamps, residential areas and many more. The actual process of extracting oil is much less environmentally risky than is often portrayed, especially modern rigs using environmentally safe technology. In terms of emissions, the process does not emit significant waste relative to most industrial processes. The worst that can really happen is an oil spill, which companies all over the world have become expert at containing and cleaning up compared to how it was at the dawn of the industry.

Function

Drills are made from a number of components and are designed differently to meet the task in front of them. The hardest drill types are made out of diamond, and these can drill to far greater depths than ordinary types of drills. One of the main limiters of drill depth is simply economics: It's possible to drill very deep into the earth--more than 1,000 m--but it's very difficult to turn a profit on the operation the deeper that the drill goes underground.

Expert Insight

Drilling rigs require many experts and laborers in order to operate effectively. Before the drilling rig can even operate effectively, geologists need to conduct exploration using exploratory drilling and underground imaging with sonar and other technology to find out where the oil is. Engineers, demolitions specialists and more are needed to keep the rigs operating once the preliminary stage is over; on the business end, managers need to make sure the entire operation remains profitable while planning to protect from any unforeseen problems or disasters.

Potential

Drill technology has advanced relatively little over the past several decades. Although the process has become marginally more efficient, drill depth is still limited significantly due to fundamental limitations in the current process. If substantial advances occur that may greatly affect the achievable drilling depths, vast quantities of currently unrecoverable oil reserves will become available. The primary limiter of the oil supply today is not a lack of oil, but rather is more related to above-ground political factors and limitations in drilling technology.

Resources

• Types of Drilling Rigs
• Illustrated Glossary of a Drilling Rig