Drilling an Oil Well, the Dummy Version

oilfield drill bit

In the midst of fact-checking a recent post on oil rigs, we ran across a link to a post on HowStuffWorks.com. We respect David Macaulay, so we sort of figured that a website riffing on the title of his most famous work would be authoritative. Boy, were we wrong! We sent our chief petroleum geologist to read through "The Oil Drilling Process Explained" by David DeFranza, and the poor guy almost ralphed up his breakfast. So much for having four college degrees!

Of course, it would help if DeFranza's degrees weren't in business, history, and "communications": you know, maybe something scientific? That's not to mention that DeFranza was writing for "Planet Green" at the time, which – you'll have to admit – added some bias to his misinformation. That may be why David seemed to think that every well is fracked. But let's take a look at some of DeFranza's misinformation:

• "The bit varies in diameter from five to 50 inches." – Fifty inches? Is he kidding? Maybe thirty, but...
• "After each section is drilled, a steel pipe slightly smaller than the hole diameter is dropped in and often cement is used to fill the gap." – Q: What's a "section," David? And what "gap" do you mean? A: We guess the "section" is the interval drilled with a bit of a given diameter. Only deeper wells have multiple "sections"; however. The casing is always cemented in place, with the cement filling any space between the rock wall of the borehole and the outside of the casing.

• "...'casing' is used... to isolated [sic] high-pressure areas of rock that can explode if allowed to release." – "[E]xplode"? Is that what you think a blowout is, rock "exploding"? Not only that, the "rock" isn't "high-pressure," it's the fluids in the reservoir that are at a pressure higher than would be expected for their depth.
• "Once the hole has been drilled, it must be 'completed' or prepared for extraction." – Would that every well must be completed, David: most exploration wells are simply plugged and abandoned because they did not find economic amounts of hydrocarbons.
• "Fluids... are then pumped through to clean and fracture the rock..." – No, David, not all wells are fracked. Just the ones you've heard of...
• "Abandonment... When this happens, tubing is removed and cement is pored [sic]..." –  We just wanted to make fun of that "pored" BS.

Besides having only a vague understanding of whatever resource he plagiarized to write the article, DeFranza had to put in an environmental plug. Now, some of us are cognizant of the hazards of drilling for hydrocarbons; having actually seen it done (something we doubt David can say). But this closing statement...

"With so many steps taking place down relatively narrow holes deep below the earth's surface, there is a lot of room for accidents to happen. As proven reserves shrink and become more difficult to replace, drillers are forced to search for deeper and less reliable sources of hydrocarbons and these places are often more difficult and dangerous to drill." ...That's crap. Petroleum exploration is far less hazardous than it was thirty, forty, or fifty years ago. We'll agree that the search for hydrocarbons has become more difficult, but more dangerous? That's bullshit. It's such bullshit that we can't help but name DeFranza our Dumbass of the Day.

Oh, well, at least he didn't claim that oil is found in "pockets."

copyright © 2018-2022 scmrak

SI- OIL