Kaiser Discusses Future of Drilling, Fracking
Tulsa oilman says advances in technology are driving new oil, gas boom
By Adam Wilmoth
Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing often are credited with sparking the country’s ongoing shale revolution, but that brief description doesn’t tell the whole story.
Until the past decade, most oil wells have been drilled vertically, targeting a patch of sandstone or some other soft rock that acts like a sponge and absorbs oil and natural gas.
With horizontal drilling, operators punch a traditional vertical hole up to a mile or two deep before angling the pipe so that it creates a horizontal section that can stretch up to another couple miles.
Horizontal and angled drilling have been used in various forms for at least half a century.