Well drilling is the process of drilling a hole in the ground for the extraction of a natural resource such as ground water, brine, natural gas, or petroleum, for the injection of a fluid from surface to a subsurface reservoir or for subsurface formations evaluation or monitoring. Drilling for the exploration of the nature of the material underground is best described as borehole drilling.
An oil well is a drillhole boring in Earth that is designed to bring petroleum oil hydrocarbons to the surface. Usually some natural gas is released as associated petroleum gas along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce only gas may be termed a gas well. Wells are created by drilling down into an oil or gas reserve and if necessary equipped with extraction devices such as pumpjacks. Creating the wells can be an expensive process, costing at least hundreds of thousands of dollars, and costing much more when in difficult-to-access locations, e.g., offshore. The process of modern drilling for wells first started in the 19th century but was made more efficient with advances to oil drilling rigs and technology during the 20th century.
Baker Hughes Company is an American global energy technology company co-headquartered in Houston, Texas and London, UK. As one of the world's largest oil field services, industrial and energy technology companies, it provides products and services to the oil and gas industry for exploration and production, as well as other energy and industrial applications. It operates in over 120 countries, with facilities in Australia, Brazil, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Directional drilling is the practice of drilling non-vertical bores. It can be broken down into four main groups: oilfield directional drilling, utility installation directional drilling, directional boring, and surface in seam (SIS), which horizontally intersects a vertical bore target to extract coal bed methane.
A drilling rig is an integrated system that drills wells, such as oil or water wells, or holes for piling and other construction purposes, into the earth's subsurface. Drilling rigs can be massive structures housing equipment used to drill water wells, oil wells, or natural gas extraction wells, or they can be small enough to be moved manually by one person and such are called augers. Drilling rigs can sample subsurface mineral deposits, test rock, soil and groundwater physical properties, and also can be used to install sub-surface fabrications, such as underground utilities, instrumentation, tunnels or wells. Drilling rigs can be mobile equipment mounted on trucks, tracks or trailers, or more permanent land or marine-based structures. The term "rig" therefore generally refers to the complex equipment that is used to penetrate the surface of the Earth's crust.
SBM Offshore N.V. is a Dutch-based global group of companies selling systems and services to the offshore oil and gas industry. Its constituent companies started their offshore activities in the early 1950s and SBM subsequently became a pioneer in single buoy moorings (SBM) systems. The firm leases and operates Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessels, and is involved in the design and engineering, construction, installation, operation and maintenance of floating production equipment for the offshore Oils and Gas industry. It is a main board listed company on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange and has been a member of the AEX index since 2003. It had been involved in part of a massive corruption scandal in Brazil.
A drilling rig is used to create a borehole or well in the earth's sub-surface, for example in order to extract natural resources such as gas or oil. During such drilling, data is acquired from the drilling rig sensors for a range of purposes such as: decision-support to monitor and manage the smooth operation of drilling; to make detailed records of the geologic formations penetrated by a borehole; to generate operations statistics and performance benchmarks such that improvements can be identified, and to provide well planners with accurate historical operations-performance data with which to perform statistical risk analysis for future well operations. The terms measurement while drilling (MWD), and logging while drilling (LWD) are not used consistently throughout the industry. Although these terms are related, within the context of this section, the term measurement while drilling refers to directional-drilling measurements, e.g. for decision support for the wellbore path, while LWD refers to measurements concerning the geological formations penetrated while drilling.
Shaffer, a subsidiary of NOV Inc., is a manufacturer and distributor of pressure control devices for the petroleum industry. The company's products include blowout preventers, control systems, riser string packages, choke valves, riser tensioners, and drill string compensators.
Nabors Industries Limited is an American global oil and gas drilling contractor that has operated since 1972. Based in Houston, Texas, Nabors operates the world’s largest land drilling rig fleet, with around 500 rigs operating in over 25 countries – in almost every significant O&G basin on the planet. It also has the largest number of high-specification rigs and custom rigs, built to withstand challenging conditions such as extreme cold, desert and many complex shale plays.
Key Energy Services is an American oilfield services company.
Oilfield terminology refers to the jargon used by those working in fields within and related to the upstream segment of the petroleum industry. It includes words and phrases describing professions, equipment, and procedures specific to the industry. It may also include slang terms used by oilfield workers to describe the same.
Cameron International Corporation (formerly Cooper Cameron Corporation (CCC) and Cooper Oil Tool, Cameron Iron Works) though now operating under Schlumberger, is a global provider of pressure control, production, processing, and flow control systems as well as project management and aftermarket services for the oil and gas and process industries. Cameron was acquired by Schlumberger (SLB) in 2016, and now operates as 'Cameron, an SLB Company.' At the start of the SLB acquisition in 2015, Cameron employed approximately 23,000 people and delivered $9.8 billion in revenue.
IntelliServ is a National Oilwell Varco brand that manufactures and sells a broadband networked drilling string system used to transmit downhole information to the surface in a drilling operation.
Dana Energy is a private oil and gas company headquartered in Tehran, Iran. It is an exploration and production (E&P) and oilfield services company operating in Middle East and Asia. Formed in 2000, they were initially an oilfield services company and ventured into field development in 2008. By the addition of petroleum products trading to its portfolio in 2013, Dana Energy extended their business into the midstream sector, however due to sanctions imposed on Iran, their trading division came to a halt.
Merrill A. “Pete” Miller Jr. is an American business executive recognized for his leadership roles in the oil and gas industry. He is best known for his tenure as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of National Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE:NOV), a global supplier of oilfield services, equipment, and components to the energy sector. In November 2013, Miller announced he would step down as Chairman and CEO to become the Executive Chairman of the company’s spinoff distribution business, DNOW (NYSE:DNOW), formerly known as DistributionNOW and NOW Inc. Since May 2015 he is also chairman of the Swiss offshore drilling company Transocean.
Robbins & Myers, Inc. is a manufacturer of engineered equipment and systems in global energy and industrial markets. There are basically two segments operating in the company, namely Energy Services and Process and Flow Control. In February 2013, National Oilwell Varco, Inc. acquired Robbins & Myers Inc.
Grant Prideco, Inc. is a supplier of drill pipe and drill stem accessories headquartered in Houston, Texas. Since 2008, it has been a subsidiary of energy services company NOV Inc. Grant Prideco was included on the Fortune magazine top 1000 largest corporations for several years in the mid-2000s and through the 1990s and early 2000s was the world's largest oilfield drill pipe supplier.
GE Oil & Gas was the division of General Electric that owned its investments in the petroleum industry. In July 2017, this division was merged with Baker Hughes.
Gusto Shipyard, previously A.F. Smulders, was a shipbuilding company in Schiedam, Netherlands. It was famous for dredging and offshore vessels. In 1978 it was closed down under suspicious circumstances. Its engineering office still exists as GustoMSC, a subsidiary of American oil rig and equipment manufacturer NOV Inc.
US$5.524 billion (2021)
US$−134 million (2021)
