Significant Milestones in Oil Production Technology
The technology in the production oil has not been left behind in advancing as you will read more here. Considering the value of oil to our lives, it is suitable to review the changes that have followed its discovery. The ancient people in Mesopotamia used a hardened substance called bitumen to construct sailing vessels and put jewelry pieces together. In Egypt, it was used to solidify the famous pyramids. These minerals which oozed to the surface freely requiring no extraction equipment led to the discovery of oil.
From this site, you find out that oil was first extracted by digging. At the time, oil was used as medicine and the Chinese also lit their lamps as well as warm their houses using this product. Following the lack of valuable knowledge about oil as read in this site, there many false assumptions about oil fields at the time.
The next advancement in technology came in form of spring poles. This apparatus which was connected to a tree was made popular by the Ruffner brothers with the intention of reaching more salt deeper in the earth. Oil was still not the primary goal but the people believed it could serve several purposes. When steam was introduced to provide energy for the spring pole for the extraction of salt the process became enhanced. A Yale chemist Benjamin Silliman discovered more about how oil could be converted into kerosene that is used for lighting lamps. It is at this point that the society became interested in the commodity and commercial drilling began.
From this website, you will read more about how the need for oil increased significantly. Following the demand; there was an increase in the number of oil fields that were discovered. However there were hard sediments that made drilling difficult hence the need for improved equipment. Thus the rotary whose drill head went deeper past the sediment without the need to clear the debris constantly was developed. One event that marked how effectiveness of the rotary drill in the process of oil extraction was observed in Texas when a rig struck a rock resulting into a lot of oil flowing to the surface. As the world war 1 was set to begin, the demand for this product increased resulting in dire need for improved equipment following strong competition among nations. The greatest achievement for the rotary drill was the ability to reach greater depths that the spring pole wouldn’t.
Today, the most common method of extracting oil is the rotary rig. However, they are advanced technologically as they are fitted with digital tracking devices, touchpads and video control to monitor and access the rigs from a fur. As you will see here, the rigs are enhanced compared to the past. For example ,as you see here is that one rig can drill multiple oil wells and even move on their own.