The Oil Drum: More Drilling Talk from Heading Out

Heading Out continues his series on drilling and technology:

But for now I would like to return to our little drill, just as it drills down into the rock that is carrying the oil. It would nice, once the drill hits the oil-bearing rock, to say that you were done. That having connected the feed line from the well through a choke valve (that controls the outflow from the well), we could proceed to tie the outflow into some kind of collection network, and then we could sit back and count the money as it flowed by.

Well not quite. There are a number of different steps that we have yet to go through before we can finish what is commonly called, the completion, of the well. At this point in the process the bottom of the well is still an open hole. That means that the rock wall is exposed, just as it was drilled. There are several issues that can come about as a result of this. The first is that the rock we have drilled into can be fairly weak. This is one of the peculiarities of geology. To a degree the richer in oil the rock is, the weaker the rock will be. (And that also holds true for oil shale – of which more at a later date). Why is that?

A lot more interesting rock jock talk after the jump to The Oil Drum.