Changes in Oil Production Technology

The technology in the production oil has not been left behind in advancing as you will read more here. Since oil is an essential commodity for the survival of man, a look into the changes in technology in production is a good idea. In the past, in Ancient Mesopotamia bitumen a hardened substance was used in ship construction and holding jewelry together. The pharaohs in Egypt used the substance to make the pyramids stand tall. Bitumen, asphalt and motor led to increased curiosity about oil among people.

From this site, you find out that oil was first extracted by digging. The people living in this period used oil to heal diseases, light their lamps and heat their houses. Little information about oil existence was available at the time as you have seen in this site.

The next discovery to be made as you will find here, was the spring pole. 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. Despite a hint of the possible things oil could be used for at this time, oil was still not a necessity. However when steam power was introduced, the brothers were able to drill salt at a faster rate. A chemist at Yale by the name Benjamin Silliman discovered more about distillation of oil into Kerosene that could be used in lamps to provide lighting and even cook. It is at this point that the society became interested in the commodity and commercial drilling began.

As you learn more about how the demand for oil surged in this website. Following the demand; there was an increase in the number of oil fields that were discovered. During the drilling process there were sediments that obstructed extraction of oil and the need for better machinery came up. As a result, a technique called rotary drilling was developed whose head penetrated the hard rock without the need to remove debris regularly. 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. Even though the rotary rigs are still in use, they have been modified to today’s technology. As you will see here, the rigs are enhanced compared to the past. One such case is the increased mobility of the rig to extract oil from several oil wells.

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