Upstream Technology

Technology's contribution to finding oil is huge.  It cannot change geology, but by revolutionizing the information available on the features of a geologic structure, it has enhanced the likelihood of success.  A primary benefit is the ability to eliminate poor prospects, thus wasted expenditure on dry holes.   In addition, drilling and production technologies have made it possible to exploit reservoirs that would have formerly been too costly to put into production and, as described above, to increase the recovery from existing reservoirs. 

The new power of oil exploration technology comes first from the revolution in computing power.  The enhanced capability to process data has, for instance, allowed seismic testing to move from 2-dimensional to 3-dimensional.  While seismic testing has been important for decades, even 2-D seismic was economically feasible only for large companies for a long time.  New computing power has both enhanced the results of seismic testing and made it accessible to the full spectrum of companies. 

Seismic exploration, broadly speaking, creates a picture of the subsurface by recording vibrations as they bounce back from geologic formations.  Offshore, the vibrations come from vessels towing a sonar array that "shoots" with compressed air.  Onshore, the vibrations come from specially designed trucks that "thump" the ground (and formerly, from a dynamite explosion).  The difference between 2-D and 3-D seismic lies in the number of vibrations from which meaningful information can be calibrated.  With 2-D, geophones along a line of vibrations provided a picture that was a cross-section -- a slice -- of the rock formation.  With 3-D, the geophones cover a grid, not just a line.   With thousands of times more data points, scientists can map a cube, creating a 3-dimensional computer image of the formation.  While 3-D seismic is many times more expensive than 2-D, it allows companies to avoid unlikely prospects, and hence wasting money on unsuccessful wells.  

Technology has also contributed a variety of tools to identify and exploit reservoirs or portions of reservoirs that are less accessible, small and/or compartmentalized, incompletely drained, or porous.  Advanced imaging, used widely in medicine, also helps find and produce oil more efficiently, and has advanced the recovery of subsalt reservoirs (those lying beneath a "sheet" of salt, commonly offshore).  Multiple zone completions, where oil flows into the wellbore at points along the pipe, instead of just at the bottom, helps drain reservoirs more economically.  Horizontal drilling both enhances the accessibility and allows more efficient extraction from some reservoirs.   New drillbits can penetrate harder rock.  In the offshore, as discussed more fully below, subsea platforms allow safer and more economic development of remote fields.

Technology has also contributed in making oil exploration and production safer for the industry and for the environment.  Offshore production can be operated from onshore, with automatic shutoff systems to minimize the pollution risk.  Infrared photography can pinpoint a trajectory of spilled oil, allowing equipment and personnel to be deployed effectively to minimize damage. 

Technology has also been responsible for the rejuvenation of offshore exploration that has taken place beyond the Outer Continental Shelf.