Chapter 2 - State-of-the-art of drilling

Abstract

It is well known that the petroleum industry drives the energy sector, which in turn drives the modern civilization. Although drilling of petroleum wells is the most known application of drilling technologies, drilling wells goes back in time to the origin of human civilization. Initially wells were drilled to make water available. Ground water being the best form of drinking water, humanity was dependent upon the extraction of groundwater, with wells being the primary form of water extraction. Later, long before the golden era of petroleum, wells were being drilled for extracting fossil fuel, which used to be used in its natural state. In the modern era, the most important progress in technology developments has been made in drilling technology. As such, drilling engineering has been the cornerstone of petroleum engineering and modern energy systems. In this chapter, drilling engineering is viewed in its historical perspective in order to offer the state-of-the-art to the readership.