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 that is then mounted with an extraction device such as a pumpjack which allows extraction from the reserve. Creating the wells can be an expensive process, costing at least hundreds of thousands of dollars, and costing much more when in hard to reach areas, e.g., when creating offshore oil platforms. The process of modern drilling for wells first started in the 19th century, but was made more efficient with advances to oil drilling rigs during the 20th century.
Baker Hughes Company is an American energy company based in Houston, Texas. As one of the world's largest oil field services companies, it provides products and services for oil well drilling, formation evaluation, completion, production, and reservoir consulting. It operates in over 120 countries, with research and manufacturing facilities in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Germany, Norway, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Missouri. From 2017 to 2020, the company was majority owned by General Electric (GE); however, GE no longer owns an economic stake in the company. The company is incorporated in Delaware.
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.
A mud engineer works on an oil well or gas well drilling rig, and is responsible for ensuring the properties of the drilling fluid, also known as drilling mud, are within designed specifications.
In geotechnical engineering, drilling fluid, also known as drilling mud, is used to aid the drilling of boreholes into the earth. Used while drilling oil and natural gas wells and on exploration drilling rigs, drilling fluids are also used for much simpler boreholes, such as water wells.
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.
A blowout preventer (BOP) is a specialized valve or similar mechanical device, used to seal, control and monitor oil and gas wells to prevent blowouts, the uncontrolled release of crude oil or natural gas from a well. They are usually installed in stacks of other valves.
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.
A well intervention, or well work, is any operation carried out on an oil or gas well during, or at the end of, its productive life that alters the state of the well or well geometry, provides well diagnostics, or manages the production of the well.
Snubbing is a type of heavy well intervention performed on oil and gas wells. It involves running the BHA on a pipe string using a hydraulic workover rig. Unlike wireline or coiled tubing, the pipe is not spooled off a drum but made up and broken up while running in and pulling out, much like conventional drill pipe. Due to the large rigup, it is only used for the most demanding of operations when lighter intervention techniques do not offer the strength and durability. The first snubbing unit was primarily designed to work in well control situations to "snub" drill pipe and or casing into, or out of, a well bore when conventional well killing methods could not be used. Unlike conventional drilling and completions operations, snubbing can be performed with the well still under pressure. When done so, it is called hydraulic workover. It can also be performed without having to remove the Christmas tree from the wellhead.
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. Miller Jr., more commonly known as Pete Miller, was the chairman and chief executive officer of National Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE:NOV) a supplier of oilfield services, equipment and components to the worldwide oil and natural gas industry. In November 2013, Miller announced he would step down as chairman and CEO in order to become the executive chairman of the firm’s spinoff distribution business, DistributionNow.com (NYSE:DNOW) 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.
US$5.524 billion (2021)
US$−134 million (2021)
