Horizontal drilling is when the direction of the well is different than that of when it was initially drilled. While it does not have to be at 90 degrees to the initial hole dug, the horizontal drill bores parallel to the surface of the Earth. In recent years, it has been suggested that horizontal drilling is the best form of drilling because it saves money as well as the foot print on the world while trying to attain oil. Unlike a vertical drill where they drill directly over the oil reservoir, the horizontal drill can be drilled in one area and then moved into different areas without having to drill a second hole.

Why Use Horizontal Drilling?

For businesses, the primary reason to use horizontal drilling is because it is more cost effective. In the past, when one reservoir dried up, that was the end of that hole. Businesses would have to move two hundred feet elsewhere and then drill once again. Each hole costs a lot of money because of the drill bits as well as the manpower.With horizontal drilling, once a single hole is dug, drillers can move the pipe around. Surprisingly, the pipe that is used in oil drills is very flexible. Therefore, drillers can move it around to reach areas that might not have a lot of oil, but are not worth digging a second hole over. Because of this, diggers get more oil without having to dig excessively thus saving considerable amounts of money. While it is more expensive to drill a horizontal hole, it produces more.Horizontal Drilling

The other reason to use horizontal drilling is has less of a footprint on the area being drilled. In the past, oil drillers would use a "Swiss cheese" approach. What they would do is drill straight down, suck the oil out and when it was empty, they would move to the next place. They will drill down again, suck it dry, and then move to the next area. What would take 20 wells to drill a specific area of its oil, it would only two two or three horizontal drills. This is also beneficial to the environment because, at sea, many wells can be drilled from a single platform. Therefore, marine ecosystems aren't influenced nearly as much.

History of Horizontal Drilling

The first ideas of horizontal drilling didn't pop up until the 1920s. However, even then, it didn't gain traction until the 1980s and 90s. Over the past 25 years, horizontal drilling has evolved tremendously. With this evolution, it becomes more inexpensive as the research continues to grow. Anywhere between 3,000 and 4,000 of these wells are drilled each year using horizontal drilling because drillers realize that while one hole costs more money, they get so much more from that one hole. The longest known horizontal drill is nearly seven miles long. This incredibly monstrous pipe can be found on the southern coast of England in the oil field known as Wytch Farm. However, as the research develops and new wells are discovered, there's no doubt that other ones will be even longer in the future.