History of oil drilling Oil well drilling technology

History of oil drilling Oil well drilling technology has evolved from the ancient spring pole to percussion cable-tools to the modern rotary rigs that can drill miles into the earth.

History of oil drilling The Chinese drilled with bamboo spring poles as early as 450 A. D. Drilling or “making hole” began long before oil or natural gas were anything more than flammable curiosities found seeping from the ground. For centuries, digging by hand or shovel was the best technologies that existed to pry into the earth’s secrets. Oil seeps provided a balm for injuries. Natural gas seeps – when ignited – created folklore and places called “burning springs”.

History of oil drilling Standard cable-tool derricks stood 82 feet tall and were powered by a steam boiler and engine using a “walking beam” to alternately raise and lower drilling tools – which frequently had to be sharpened in a forge. Image from The Oil-Well Driller, 1905.

History of oil drilling Drilling technology advanced when the spring pole harnessed the resiliency of a bent tree to assist in pummeling a hole into the ground to find water. Ancient histories record the technique, which is still used in some corners of the world. While repeatedly kicking down a stirrup was primitive and slow, the spring pole’s rope and chisel were practical drilling technologies. In 1802 in what is now West Virginia, salt brine drillers David and Joseph Ruffner took 18 months to drill through 40 feet of bedrock to a total depth of 58 feet using a spring pole. The Ruffner brothers drilling ingenuity and innovation made the Kanawha River Valley a major salt manufacturing and distribution center in the early 1800 s. Many early drilling technologies were developed there.

History of oil drilling “The Ruffner brothers’ well was the first well known to have been ‘drilled, ’ as distinct from ‘dug, ’ in the Western Hemisphere, ” notes J. E. Brantly in the History of Oil Well Drilling. The well’s historic significance rests on the “development of well drilling tools and practices, which became almost immediately standard equipment used by many other well drillers in the new salt industry. ” There was money to be made from brine wells. The rapidly growing number of settlers in the frontier needed a lot of salt to preserve food. However, sometimes a good well would be fouled with the intrusion of unsought and unwanted oil. The rainbow sheen and pungent smell of oil was bad news to brine drillers. The Ruffner brothers’ tools for their spring pole probably consisted of a manila line — and a variety of chisels.

History of oil drilling The advent of cable-tool drilling introduced the wooden derrick into the changing American landscape. Using the same basic notion of chiseling a hole deeper and deeper into the earth. However, adding the miracle of steam power and clever mechanical engineering, wells could be drilled far more efficiently. Frequent stops were needed to remove the chipped-away rock and other material, bail out water – and sharpen the bit. Bull wheels and hemp rope repeatedly hoisted and dropped heavy iron drill strings and a curious variety of bits deep into the borehole.

History of oil drilling Oil was still an adversary to those in search of either fresh water or brine. However, savvy businessmen like the Ruffner brothers and Samuel Kier of Tarentum, Pennsylvania, learned to profit from this oil. It had long been recognized that oil could be collected and used as a medicine, lubricant, and even a foulsmelling, smoky illuminant. American Indians gathered oil by using blankets to soak it up from natural seeps. The Ruffner brothers sold their oil to marketers of patent medicines and lubrication products. A Howard Hughes Sr. 1909 drill bit patent will “create the cornerstone of Hughes Tool Company. ”

History of oil drilling A decade before the birth of the petroleum industry, Samuel Kier of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, sold 50 -cent, half-pint bottles of Pennsylvania “Rock Oil” proclaiming its “Wonderful Medical Virtues. ” Kier’s advertisements featured wooden cable-tool derricks drilling brine wells. When a Yale chemist, Benjamin Silliman, found that oil could be distilled into a kerosene illuminant, the world changed forever. Oil from natural seeps had been used as a balm by Native Americans. In 1848, Samuel Kier bottled and sold “Rock Oil” proclaiming its “Wonderful Medical Virtues. ”

History of oil drilling Inspired entrepreneurs formed the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company with the idea of using cable tool drilling to extract oil they hoped to find near Pennsylvania’s known oil seeps at Oil Creek near Titusville. It worked, and the petroleum age was born. Kier soon abandoned his patent medicine and went into the kerosene refining business, buying all the oil he could get. Benjamin Silliman, Jr. c. 1865

History of oil drilling Edwin L. Drake’s August 27, 1859, discovery of commercial quantities of oil at 69. 5 feet brought America’s first drilling boom — and virtually created an industry. Soon, cable-tool rigs were everywhere, pounding into the earth, searching for oil. In June 1860, J. C. Rathbone used a steam engine to power a rig and produced a 100 -barrel-per-day producer at 140 feet in what is now West Virginia. In Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio, the soft soil yielded to cabletool drilling. But as wells got deeper, some drilling experts found resistant rock strata that made progress far more difficult. Sometimes the drilling stools got stuck threatening the well

History of oil drilling A new technology answered the call of necessity and the lure of opportunity. Rotary drilling is most often associated with the spectacular 1901 Spindletop Hill discovery near Beaumont, Texas. Instead of the repetitive lift and drop of heavy cable-tool bits, rotary drilling introduced the hollow drill stem that enabled broken rock debris to be washed out of the borehole with recirculated mud while the rotating drill bit cut deeper. Rotary drilling introduced the hollow drill stem that enabled broken rock debris to be washed out of the borehole.

History of oil drilling Howard Hughes Sr. of Houston, Texas, receives a patent in 1909 for a drill that “relates to boring drills, and particularly to roller drills such as are used for drilling holes in earth and rock. ”

History of oil drilling Howard Hughes Jr. will greatly expand the petroleum service company fortune created by his father, who paid $150 for the rights to the roller bit.

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