Well drilling

Well drilling can be done either manually or mechanically and the nature of required equipment varies from extremely simple and cheap to very sophisticated.

[1] Petroleum was used in ancient China for "lighting, as a lubricant for cart axles and the bearings of water-powered drop hammers, as a source of carbon for inksticks, and as a medical remedy for sores on humans and mange in animals.

[3][4] In the modern era, the first roller cone patent was for the rotary rock bit and was issued to American businessman and inventor Howard Hughes Sr. in 1909.

This has been driven by the economics of the industry, and by the change from the empirical approach of Hughes in the 1930s, to modern day domain Finite Element codes for both the hydraulic and cutter placement software.

A fixed cutter bit is one where there are no moving parts, but drilling occurs due to shearing, scraping or abrasion of the rock.

Roller cone bits can be either tungsten carbide inserts (TCI) for harder formations or milled tooth (MT) for softer rock.

By 2018, Schlumberger, which acquired Smith in 2010,[5] became dominant in international markets thanks to packaging drill bits with their other tools and services, while Ulterra (owned by private equity firms Blackstone Energy Partners and American Securities) continued a Stark growth trend, becoming the market share leader in drill bits in the US according to Spears Research [6] and Kimberlite Research.

[7] Evaluation of the dull bit grading is done by a uniform system promoted by the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC).