Technology:

A Modern Compass Improves Drilling (USGS)

(Courtesy Oilfield Review)

By using the Earth's magnetic field, combined with new innovative technology, drilling companies are increasing productivity while reducing development costs and environmental impacts.

An article in the fall 2013 issue of Oilfield Review (PDF) highlights this technology and its applications across the world. It also discusses the public-private collaboration between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and partners to successfully implement the technology.

These days, multiple reservoirs of oil, gas and geothermal brine can be accessed from a single platform by drilling vertically and then horizontally. Drill operators need to know which way their drill bits are going to maximize production and avoid collisions with other wells. One way to accomplish this important task is to install a magnetometer—a sort of modern-day "compass"—in a drill-string instrument package that follows the drill bit.

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