Use of Superheated Steam in Oil-Well Drilling

Abstract

Abstract Advent of deep drilling for oil has greatly increased the size of the equipment necessary for drilling. The cost of equipment has been mounting very much faster than the return from the wells. Furthermore, the transportation of this heavy equipment is becoming a serious problem. These factors have turned the oil industry to the engineer for assistance in solving the problem of reducing the cost of drilling wells. Conditions have become so serious that in spite of the fact that the driller pays nothing for his fuel, he is now able to buy power in some cases from public utilities, who pay for this same fuel, more economically than he can produce it. This condition has been brought about because little attention has been paid to decreasing the initial cost and increasing the life of the equipment. Utilities have overcome the fuel cost by more efficient design and operation of the power-plant equipment. The producing industry is in an excellent position to reduce the cost of drilling wells by taking advantage of the improvements that utilities and other industries have made in design of power equipment. By so doing they will recover the advantage of low or no fuel cost, and thereby reduce the cost of drilling.