What kind of drill is used in fracking?
Heather Mizeur
Delegate Mizeur has been a high-profile supporter of stronger regulations on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. In 2010, she authored a Baltimore Sun op-ed, "Water on fire," calling attention to the drilling practice. In 2011, she introduced the Marcellus Shale Safe Drilling Act to require strict safety studies on fracking in Maryland. Mizeur's bill passed the House but failed in the Senate. However, Mizeur's bill led to creation of the Marcellus Shale Safe Drilling Initiative under a gubernatorial Executive Order. Mizeur serves on the Initiative's Commission, which is charged with studying the environmental, economic, and health impacts of fracking.
Drill bit shank
Some drills, wire wheels, etc. use a threaded shank. One example is cylindrical wire wheels meant to be pushed into a pipe of some sort to clean the inside of the pipe, but some ordinary, but mostly rather large, wood drills have threaded shanks as well.
Drilling
In computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools a process called "", or "interrupted cut drilling", is used to keep swarf from detrimentally building up when drilling deep holes (approximately when the depth of the hole is three times greater than the drill diameter). Peck drilling involves plunging the drill part way through the workpiece, no more than five times the diameter of the drill, and then retracting it to the surface. This is repeated until the hole is finished. A modified form of this process, called "high speed peck drilling" or "chip breaking", only retracts the drill slightly. This process is faster, but is only used in moderately long holes, otherwise it will overheat the drill bit. It is also used when drilling stringy material to break the chips.
Petroleum industry
In recent years, enhanced oil recovery techniques — most notably multi-stage drilling and hydraulic fracturing, together commonly known as "fracking" — have moved to the forefront of the industry as this new technology plays a crucial and controversial role in new methods of oil extraction.
Rescue plans for 2010 Copiapó mining accident
Plan C was a powerful Canadian built RIG-421 oil drilling rig operated by Calgary-based Precision Drilling Corporation and was the last drill to become involved in the rescue process; it began drilling on Sept. 19. The rig is a special drill used for oil and gas drilling that could drill a wide enough escape shaft in a single pass without a pilot hole. RIG-421 is a Diesel-Electric Triple that was tall and needed 40 truckloads to bring its pieces from Iquique, Chile to Copiapó. of rock and gravel were cleared to make a stable platform for it on the rough hillside. It was chosen for the rescue operation because it can drill large holes deep into the ground and because it works faster than mining drills. Unlike the Strata 950 and the Schramm T-130, the Rig 421 brings debris back up to the surface.
Ice core
Rotary drilling is the main method of drilling for minerals and it has also been used for ice drilling. It uses a string of drill pipe rotated from the top, and drilling fluid is pumped down through the pipe and back up around it. The cuttings are removed from the fluid at the top of the hole and the fluid is then pumped back down. This approach requires long trip times, since the entire drill string must be hoisted out of the hole, and each length of pipe must be separately disconnected, and then reconnected when the drill string is reinserted. Along with the logistical difficulties associated with bringing heavy equipment to ice sheets, this makes traditional rotary drills unattractive. In contrast, wireline drills allow the removal of the core barrel from the drill assembly while it is still at the bottom of the borehole. The core barrel is hoisted to the surface, and the core removed; the barrel is lowered again and reconnected to the drill assembly. Another alternative is flexible drill-stem rigs, in which the drill string is flexible enough to be coiled when at the surface. This eliminates the need to disconnect and reconnect the pipes during a trip.The need for a string of drillpipe that extends from the surface to the bottom of the borehole can be eliminated by suspending the entire downhole assembly on an armoured cable that conveys power to the downhole motor. These cable-suspended drills can be used for both shallow and deep holes; they require an anti-torque device, such as leaf-springs that press against the borehole, to prevent the drill assembly rotating around the drillhead as it cuts the core. The drilling fluid is usually circulated down around the outside of the drill and back up between the core and core barrel; the cuttings are stored in the downhole assembly, in a chamber above the core. When the core is retrieved, the cuttings chamber is emptied for the next run. Some drills have been designed to retrieve a second annular core outside the central core, and in these drills the space between the two cores can be used for circulation. Cable-suspended drills have proved to be the most reliable design for deep ice drilling.
History of ice drilling
A hand-held steam drill for placing ablation stakes was designed by Steven Hodge at the end of the 1960s. A Norwegian steam drill based on Howorka's 1965 design had been obtained by the Glacier Project Office of the Water Resources Division of the US Geological Survey to plant stakes on the South Cascades Glacier in Washington; Hodge borrowed the drill to install ablation stakes on the Nisqually Glacier, but found that it was too fragile, and also too unwieldy to be brought to the glacier by backpack. Hodge's design used propane, and took the form of an aluminium box, with the propane tank at the bottom and the boiler above it. An chimney could be extended from the drill to improve ventilation, and a side opening vented the burner gases. As with Howorka's design, an inner and outer hose were used for insulation purposes. Tests revealed that a simple forward hole in the nozzle did not give the most efficient results; additional holes were made in the nozzle to spread the spray evenly across the surface of the ice. Two copies of the drill were built; one was used on the South Cascades Glacier in 1969 and 1970 and on the Gulkana and Wolverine Glaciers in Alaska in 1970; the other was used by Hodge on the Nisqually Glacier in 1969, on sea ice at Barrow, Alaska in 1970, and on the Blue Glacier in 1970. Typical drilling rates were 0.55 m/min, with a drill diameter of 1 inch. A 2-inch-diameter nozzle was tested; it drilled at 0.15 m/min. It was effective in ice with sand and rock inclusions. In Arctic conditions, with air temperatures below −35 °C, it was found that the steam would cool to water and form an ice plug before reaching the drill tip, but this could be avoided by running the drill indoors to warm up the equipment first.
Truthout
In 2013, Truthout journalist Mike Ludwig unearthed with a Freedom of Information Act request with the Interior Department revealed that fracking technology was being used on offshore oil rigs in the ecologically sensitive Santa Barbara Channel. Coastal conservationists were alarmed, and environmental groups sprang into action, generating protests and broad public discussion about offshore fracking. At one point, lawsuits filed by environmental groups forced federal officials to place a moratorium on offshore fracking in the Channel while regulators reviewed the practice and their rules for making it safe. In 2014, the EPA issued a new rules requiring offshore drillers to disclose fracking chemicals they dump into the ocean off the California coast.
Barnett Shale
It was thought that only a few of the thicker sections close to Fort Worth would be able to support economic drilling, until new advances in horizontal drilling were developed in the 1980s. Techniques such as fracturing, or "fracking", wells, used by Mitchell Energy, opened the possibility of more large scale production. Even with new techniques, significant drilling did not begin until gas prices increased in the late 1990s.
Snubbing
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 (not killed). When done so, it is called hydraulic workover. It can also be performed without having to remove the Christmas tree from the wellhead.
Drilling
Drilling is a cutting process that uses a drill bit to cut a hole of circular cross-section in solid materials. The drill bit is usually a rotary cutting tool, often multi-point. The bit is pressed against the work-piece and rotated at rates from hundreds to thousands of revolutions per minute. This forces the cutting edge against the work-piece, cutting off chips (swarf) from the hole as it is drilled.
Exhibition drill
Exhibition drill is a variant of drill that involves complex marching sequences which usually deviate from drill used in the course of ordinary parades. Teams performing exhibition drill are often affiliated with military units, but the scope of exhibition drill is not limited to military drill teams. Exhibition drill is often performed by Armed Forces Precision Drill Teams, the drill teams at service academies and ROTC and JROTC units, and civilian drill teams that perform at parades, drill meets, and half-time shows and other public venues.
Hammer drill
Holes in hard materials are needed for anchor bolts, concrete screws and wall plugs. Hammer drills are not typically used for production construction drilling, but rather for occasional drilling of holes into concrete, masonry or stone. They are also used to drill holes in concrete footings to pin concrete wall forms and to drill holes in concrete floors to pin wall framing. Hammer drills almost always have a lever or switch that locks off the special "hammer clutch," turning the tool into a conventional drill for wood or metal work. Hammer drills are more expensive and more bulky than regular drills, but are preferable for applications where the material to be drilled—concrete block or wood studs—is unknown. For example, an electrician mounting an electrical box to a wall would be able to use the same hammer drill to drill into either wood studs (hammer disabled) or masonry walls (hammer enabled).
Milling (machining)
A third type also exists, a lighter machine, called a mill-drill, which is a close relative of the vertical mill and quite popular with hobbyists. A mill-drill is similar in basic configuration to a small drill press, but equipped with an X-Y table. They also typically use more powerful motors than a comparably sized drill press, with potentiometer-controlled speed and generally have more heavy-duty spindle bearings than a drill press to deal with the lateral loading on the spindle that is created by a milling operation. A mill drill also typically raises and lowers the entire head, including motor, often on a dovetailed vertical, where a drill press motor remains stationary, while the arbor raises and lowers within a driving collar. Other differences that separate a mill-drill from a drill press may be a fine tuning adjustment for the Z-axis, a more precise depth stop, the capability to lock the X, Y or Z axis, and often a system of tilting the head or the entire vertical column and powerhead assembly to allow angled cutting. Aside from size and precision, the principal difference between these hobby-type machines and larger true vertical mills is that the X-Y table is at a fixed elevation; the Z-axis is controlled in basically the same fashion as drill press, where a larger vertical or knee mill has a vertically fixed milling head, and changes the X-Y table elevation. As well, a mill-drill often uses a standard drill press-type Jacob's chuck, rather than an internally tapered arbor that accepts collets. These are frequently of lower quality than other types of machines, but still fill the hobby role well because they tend to be benchtop machines with small footprints and modest price tags.
Drill, baby, drill
Fred Krupp of the Environmental Defense Fund in 2014 harkened back to the "drill baby" phrase as he launched a renewed effort to limit the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing (fracking).
Chuck (engineering)
A "drill chuck" is a specialised self-centering, three-jaw chuck, usually with capacity of or less and rarely greater than , used to hold drill bits or other rotary tools. This type of chuck is used on tools ranging from professional equipment to inexpensive hand and power drills for domestic use; it is the type a person who does not normally work with machine tools is most likely to be familiar with.
Hammer drill
A hammer drill, also known as a percussion drill or impact drill, is a power tool used chiefly for drilling in hard materials. It is a type of rotary drill with an impact mechanism that generates a hammering motion. The percussive mechanism provides a rapid succession of short hammer thrusts to pulverize the material to be bored, so as to provide quicker drilling with less effort. If a hammer drill's impact mechanism can be turned off, the tool can be used like a conventional drill to also perform tasks such as screwdriving.
Drilling
When it is not possible to bring material to the СNС machine, a Magnetic Base Drilling Machine may be used. The base allows drilling in a horizontal position and even on a ceiling. Usually for these machines it is better to use cutters because they can drill much faster with less speed. Cutter sizes vary from 12mm to 200mm DIA and from 30mm to 200mm DOC(depth of cut). These machines are widely used in construction, fabrication, marine, and oil & gas industries. In the oil and gas industry, pneumatic magnetic drilling machines are used to avoid sparks, as well as special tube magnetic drilling machines that can be fixed on pipes of different sizes, even inside.
Hydraulic fracturing by country
Massive hydraulic fracturing of gas wells in tight sandstone began in Germany in 1975, and became common during the period 1978–1985, when more wells received massive hydraulic fracs in Germany than in any other European country. Germany also had the largest hydraulic fracturing jobs in Europe, using up to 650 tonnes of proppant per well. Most German fracs used water- or oil-based gels. The most popular target formation for hydraulic fracturing was the Rotliegend Sandstone. Hydraulically fractured wells are today the source of most of German natural gas production.
Hydraulic fracturing
Hydraulic fracturing is used to increase the rate at which fluids, such as petroleum, water, or natural gas can be recovered from subterranean natural reservoirs. Reservoirs are typically porous sandstones, limestones or dolomite rocks, but also include "unconventional reservoirs" such as shale rock or coal beds. Hydraulic fracturing enables the extraction of natural gas and oil from rock formations deep below the earth's surface (generally ), which is greatly below typical groundwater reservoir levels. At such depth, there may be insufficient permeability or reservoir pressure to allow natural gas and oil to flow from the rock into the wellbore at high economic return. Thus, creating conductive fractures in the rock is instrumental in extraction from naturally impermeable shale reservoirs. Permeability is measured in the microdarcy to nanodarcy range. Fractures are a conductive path connecting a larger volume of reservoir to the well. So-called "super fracking," creates cracks deeper in the rock formation to release more oil and gas, and increases efficiency. The yield for typical shale bores generally falls off after the first year or two, but the peak producing life of a well can be extended to several decades.
Snake Wells
The creative minds at Shell refused to accept that so much perfectly good oil was going to waste - so they decided to do something about it. The snake well drill is a ground breaking piece of technology that allows us to extract oil from these previously hard to reach places. Unlike conventional drills, state of the art software allows the snake well drill to follow complex horizontal paths, cutting through shale and sand to reach a number of different reservoir pockets from a single drilling platform.
However, despite the high complexity of the wells, the articles published in the industry publications refer only to existing technologies.
Ice drilling
Another approach (see (c) at right) is to use a drilling fluid that is a mixture of ethanol and water, with the exact proportions determined by the ice temperature. In these drills there is a piston above the core barrel and at the start of a run the piston is at the bottom of the sonde, and the space above is filled with drilling fluid. As the drills cuts downwards, the core pushes the piston up, pumping the fluid down and out around the cutting head, where it mixes with the meltwater and prevents it from freezing. The piston is the only moving part, which simplifies the design; and the core barrel can take up much of the length of the sonde, whereas drills which suck out the meltwater in order to drill in a dry hole have to sacrifice a large section of the sonde for meltwater storage.
Hydraulic fracturing in the United States
Coalbed methane wells, which first began to be drilled in the 1980s, are commonly hydraulically fractured to increase the flow rates to the well. Hydraulic fracturing is commonly used in some coalbed methane areas, such as the Black Warrior Basin and the Raton Basin, but not in others, such as the Powder River Basin, depending on the local geology. Injected volumes tend to be much smaller than those of either tight gas wells or shale gas wells; a 2004 EPA study found a median injected volume of for coalbed methane wells.
Oil platform
There are many different types of facilities from which offshore drilling operations take place. These include bottom founded drilling rigs (jackup barges and swamp barges), combined drilling and production facilities either bottom founded or floating platforms, and deepwater mobile offshore drilling units (MODU) including semi-submersibles and drillships. These are capable of operating in water depths up to . In shallower waters the mobile units are anchored to the seabed, however in deeper water (more than ) the semisubmersibles or drillships are maintained at the required drilling location using dynamic positioning.
The Heartland Institute
The Institute advocates for hydraulic fracturing (aka "fracking"), a well-stimulation technique in which rock is fractured by pressurized liquids, publishing essays in support of fracking in various national newspapers. On March 20, 2015, Heartland's science director defended hydraulic fracturing on the "Your World With Neil Cavuto" program on Fox News.
Directional boring
Directional Boring, often undifferentiated from Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD), is a minimal impact trenchless method of installing underground pipe, conduit, or cables in a relatively shallow arc or radius along a prescribed underground bore path by using a surface-launched drilling rig. With respect to the pipeline/utility industry, the term "Directional Boring" or "Bore" is generally reserved for mini/small sized drilling rigs, small diameter bores, and crossing lengths in terms of hundreds of feet. Generally, the term Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) is intended to describe large/maxi sized drilling rigs, large diameter bores, and crossing lengths in terms of thousand of feet. Directional Boring and HDD, while similar in process to each other, are markedly different from directional drilling associated with the oil industry. The methods offer significant advantages over traditional cut and cover pipeline/utility installations and are routinely used when trenching or excavating is not practical. Boring/HDD can be utilized with various pipe materials such as PVC, polyethylene, polypropylene, ductile iron, and steel as long as the pipe is sized appropriately to withstand installation stresses imparted during pullback.
Water well
Rotary drilling machines use a segmented steel drilling string, typically made up of sections of galvanized steel tubing that are threaded together, with a bit or other drilling device at the bottom end. Some rotary drilling machines are designed to install (by driving or drilling) a steel casing into the well in conjunction with the drilling of the actual bore hole. Air and/or water is used as a circulation fluid to displace cuttings and cool bits during the drilling. Another form of rotary-style drilling, termed "mud rotary", makes use of a specially made mud, or drilling fluid, which is constantly being altered during the drill so that it can consistently create enough hydraulic pressure to hold the side walls of the bore hole open, regardless of the presence of a casing in the well. Typically, boreholes drilled into solid rock are not cased until after the drilling process is completed, regardless of the machinery used.
Kelly drive
A kelly drive refers to a type of well drilling device on an oil or gas drilling rig that employs a section of pipe with a polygonal (three-, four-, six-, or eight-sided) or splined outer surface, which passes through the matching polygonal or splined kelly (mating) bushing and rotary table. This bushing is rotated via the rotary table and thus the pipe and the attached drill string turn while the polygonal pipe is free to slide vertically in the bushing as the bit digs the well deeper. When drilling, the drill bit is attached at the end of the drill string and thus the kelly drive provides the means to turn the bit (assuming that a downhole motor is not being used).
Hydraulic fracturing
A distinction can be made between conventional, low-volume hydraulic fracturing, used to stimulate high-permeability reservoirs for a single well, and unconventional, high-volume hydraulic fracturing, used in the completion of tight gas and shale gas wells. High-volume hydraulic fracturing usually requires higher pressures than low-volume fracturing; the higher pressures are needed to push out larger volumes of fluid and proppant that extend farther from the borehole.
Drill string
In addition to the mechanical and hydraulic versions, jars are classified as drilling jars or fishing jars. The operation of the two types is similar, and both deliver approximately the same impact blow, but the drilling jar is built such that it can better withstand the rotary and vibrational loading associated with drilling. Jars are designed to be reset by simple string manipulation and are capable of repeated operation or firing before being recovered from the well. Jarring effectiveness is
determined by how rapidly you can impact weight into the jars. When jarring without a compounder or accelerator you rely only on pipe stretch to lift the drill collars upwards after the jar releases to create the upwards impact in the jar. This accelerated upward movement will often be reduced by the friction of the working string along the sides of the well bore, reducing the speed of upwards movement of the drill collars which impact into the jar. At shallow depths jar impact is not achieved because of lack of pipe stretch in the working string.
Hydraulic fracturing
Hydraulic-fracturing equipment used in oil and natural gas fields usually consists of a slurry blender, one or more high-pressure, high-volume fracturing pumps (typically powerful triplex or quintuplex pumps) and a monitoring unit. Associated equipment includes fracturing tanks, one or more units for storage and handling of proppant, high-pressure treating iron, a chemical additive unit (used to accurately monitor chemical addition), low-pressure flexible hoses, and many gauges and meters for flow rate, fluid density, and treating pressure. Chemical additives are typically 0.5% of the total fluid volume. Fracturing equipment operates over a range of pressures and injection rates, and can reach up to and (100 barrels per minute).
Boring (earth)
When drilling in stone, one must pay particular attention to the type of material. There are three different classifications of drill bits used for drilling into stone: soft, medium, and hard. Soft formation rock bits are used in unconsolidated sands, clays, and soft limestones, etc. Medium formation bits are used in dolomites, limestones, and shale, while hard formation bits are used in hard shale, mudstones, granite, limestones and other hard and/or abrasive formations.
Offshore geotechnical engineering
Drilling is another means of sampling the seabed. It is used to obtain a record of the seabed stratigraphy or the rock formations below it. The set-up used to sample an offshore structure's foundation is similar to that used by the oil industry to reach and delineate hydrocarbon reservoirs, with some differences in the types of testing. The drill string consists of a series of pipe segments in diameter screwed end to end, with a drillbit assembly at the bottom. As the dragbit (teeth extending downward from the drillbit) cut into the soil, soil cuttings are produced. Viscous drilling mud flowing down the drillpipe collects these cuttings and carry them up outside the drillpipe. As is the case for onshore geotechnical surveys, different tools can be used for sampling the soil from a drill hole, notably "Shelby tubes", "piston samplers" and "split spoon samplers".
Hydraulic fracturing in South Africa
Hydraulic fracturing in South Africa is an energy creation strategy in early stages of development using high-pressure drilling techniques to release natural gas trapped in shale rock. After initially imposing a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (also known as “fracking”) in April 2011, the South African government lifted the moratorium in September 2012 after an initial investigation by an interdepartmental task team. Several energy companies were subsequently granted exploration licenses. Fracking in South Africa is a current topic of debate, with proponents pointing to substantial economic and energy benefits and opponents voicing concerns about potentially adverse environmental impacts.
Hydraulic fracturing
Fracturing as a method to stimulate shallow, hard rock oil wells dates back to the 1860s. Dynamite or nitroglycerin detonations were used to increase oil and natural gas production from petroleum bearing formations. On 25 April 1865, US Civil War veteran Col. Edward A. L. Roberts received a patent for an "exploding torpedo". It was employed in Pennsylvania, New York, Kentucky, and West Virginia using liquid and also, later, solidified nitroglycerin. Later still the same method was applied to water and gas wells. Stimulation of wells with acid, instead of explosive fluids, was introduced in the 1930s. Due to acid etching, fractures would not close completely resulting in further productivity increase.
Drill cuttings
The bulk of the cuttings require disposal. The methodology is dependent on the type of drilling fluid use. For water based drilling fluid (WBM) with no particular dangerous additives, the cuttings can be dumped overboard (in offshore senario). If however an oil based drilling fluid (OBM) is used then the cuttings must be processed before disposal. Either in skips and transported to a dedicated facility (aka skip and ship), or now there are mobile plants that can process them at the rigsite effectively burning off the drilling fluid contamination. This saves the logistics and cost of transporting such quantities of cuttings. Although possibly thought of as a uninteresting topic, if in a skip and ship scenario, the dependency on crane operations to move skips can lead to situations whereby bad weather halts drilling as the cuttings handling cannot continue.
Drilling jumbo
A drilling jumbo consists of one, two or three rock drill carriages, sometimes a platform, which the miner stands on to load the holes with explosives, clear the face of the tunnel or else. The carriages are bolted onto the chassis, which supports also the miners cabin and of course the engine. Modern drilling jumbos are relatively large, there are however smaller ones for use in cramped conditions. Whereas modern jumbos usually fitted with rubber tyres and diesel powered, there are also exist variants with steel wheels, to ride on rails and even single carriaged sled-mounted ones. Electric power is also common, historical jumbos were powered by compressed air. Electricity and compressed air produce of course no exhaust gases, which is preferable if work is done in smaller tunnels where good ventilation is difficult.
Hydraulic fracturing in South Africa
The main concern raised against fracking is of the environment. In order to extract the gas, water and chemicals must be blasted into the shale at high pressures. This process concerns opponents of fracking because of the potentially chemical leaks into sub-surface aquifers, which could affect thousands of hectares of land for many years. Radioactive particles could also pollute groundwater, which is already scarce in the Karoo. Proponents of the process argue that a well-maintained regulatory environment, with emergency event control protocols, would prevent environmental catastrophes from occurring. In the United States, leakage has been reported in less than 1% of wells. Proponents also argue that more casing can be used while drilling to prevent leakages and environmentally friendly chemicals have been developed to prevent leaks from being harmful to local water supplies. Finally, proponents contend that aquifers depended on for human use in the Karoo are generally shallow, while shale pockets that could be extracted from are deeper, so contamination is less likely.
Hydraulic fracturing
In 1997, Nick Steinsberger, an engineer of Mitchell Energy (now part of Devon Energy), applied the slickwater fracturing technique, using more water and higher pump pressure than previous fracturing techniques, which was used in East Texas by Union Pacific Resources (now part of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation), in the Barnett Shale of north Texas. In 1998, the new technique proved to be successful when the first 90 days gas production from the well called S.H. Griffin No. 3 exceeded production of any of the company's previous wells. This new completion technique made gas extraction widely economical in the Barnett Shale, and was later applied to other shales, including the Eagle Ford and Bakken Shale. George P. Mitchell has been called the "father of fracking" because of his role in applying it in shales. The first horizontal well in the Barnett Shale was drilled in 1991, but was not widely done in the Barnett until it was demonstrated that gas could be economically extracted from vertical wells in the Barnett.
Drilling
For heavy feeds and comparatively deep holes oil-hole drills are used in the drill bit, with a lubricant pumped to the drill head through a small hole in the bit and flowing out along the fluting. A conventional drill press arrangement can be used in oil-hole drilling, but it is more commonly seen in automatic drilling machinery in which it is the workpiece that rotates rather than the drill bit.
Hydraulic fracturing in the United States
On January 22, 2016, the Obama administration announced new regulations for emissions from oil and gas on federal lands to be regulated by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to decrease impacts made on global warming and climate change. This became known as the “BLM fracking rule”, and would take effect on March 31 extending into Federal, Indian, and Public lands. This rule would apply to more than 750 million areas of Federal and Indian lands and regulated chemical disclosure, well integrity, and flowback water management. This rule would require companies to identify the chemicals being used in hydraulic fracturing and their purpose. This requirement would only extend to chemicals used after, not before, fracking to protect company chemical mix recipes. But, not knowing the chemicals beforehand eliminates the government's ability to test the water for a baseline reading to know if the process is contaminating water sources or not. Well integrity is vital to ensure that oil, gas, and other fracking chemicals are not being leached into direct drinking water sources. The rule would require operators to submit a cement bond log to ensure that drinking water has been properly isolated from the water that will be used. Finally, the BLM requires companies to provide their estimated waste water totals along with a disposal plan. The fracking rule was met with critiques for not requiring more transparency from corporations on chemicals being used before drilling into wells.
Drill string
A set of jars consisted of two interlocking links which could telescope. In 1880 they had a play of about 13 inches such that the upper link could be lifted 13 inches before the lower link was engaged. This engagement occurred when the cross-heads came together.Today, there are two primary types, hydraulic and mechanical jars. While their respective designs are quite different, their operation is similar. Energy is stored in the drillstring and suddenly released by the jar when it fires. Jars can be designed to strike up, down, or both. In the case of jarring up above a stuck bottomhole assembly, the driller slowly pulls up on the drillstring but the BHA does not move. Since the top of the drillstring is moving up, this means that the drillstring itself is stretching and storing energy. When the jars reach their firing point, they suddenly allow one section of the jar to move axially relative to a second, being pulled up rapidly in much the same way that one end of a stretched spring moves when released. After a few inches of movement, this moving section slams into a steel shoulder,
imparting an impact load.
Drilling rig
Also known as ballistic well drilling and sometimes called "spudders", these rigs raise and drop a drill string with a heavy carbide tipped drilling bit that chisels through the rock by finely pulverizing the subsurface materials. The drill string is composed of the upper drill rods, a set of "jars" (inter-locking "sliders" that help transmit additional energy to the drill bit and assist in removing the bit if it is stuck) and the drill bit. During the drilling process, the drill string is periodically removed from the borehole and a bailer is lowered to collect the drill cuttings (rock fragments, soil, etc.). The bailer is a bucket-like tool with a trapdoor in the base. If the borehole is dry, water is added so that the drill cuttings will flow into the bailer. When lifted, the trapdoor closes and the cuttings are then raised and removed. Since the drill string must be raised and lowered to advance the boring, the casing (larger diameter outer piping) is typically used to hold back upper soil materials and stabilize the borehole.
Drifter drill
It usually consists of a percussive system and a rotative system. The percussive system strikes the drill steel, for example 2000-5000 strikes per minute, whereas the number of rotations can be, for example, 100-400 per minute. The combination of these functions enables drilling holes into rock. The excess material (cuttings) is pushed up from the bottom of the hole by means of pressurized air or water.
List of ecoregions in North America (CEC)
Natural gas and oil from hydraulic fracturing is an interesting relatively new emerging resource from the region. "Fracking" as it is commonly known involves sending pressurized water or sand into shale deposits into order to open up more cracks for which natural gas and oil can flow through, into the pipes and out of the ground. There were 8.982 drills as of 2011 in Pennsylvania alone that operated under hydraulic fracturing. Though this is an intriguing emerging resource for the region it also is extremely controversial as oil and gas from the "fracking" process can sometimes seep into ground water and contaminate it.
Hydraulic fracturing in the United Kingdom
For both low and high volume hydraulic fracturing stimulation of a hydrocarbon well, a high-pressure fluid (usually water) containing chemical additives and a proppant is injected into a wellbore to create an extensive system of small cracks in the deep-rock formations. These cracks provide the pathway for: natural gas, (including shale gas, tight gas and coalbed methane); petroleum, (including shale or tight oil); to flow more freely. When the hydraulic pressure is removed from the well, the small grains of hydraulic fracturing proppant hold the fractures open when the pressure is released.
When a hydrocarbon well is hydraulically fractured, this is done through a production packer (seal), through the drill pipe or tubing. Fluids are circulated down the tubing, to below the point where the packer is sealed against the production casing. Pressure is then be applied only that part of the casing below the packer. The rest of the well casing will not experience any increase in pressure due to the sealing of the packer. The surface casings do not experience the great pressures experienced at the production zone. This means the stresses on a surface casing are no greater than on a normal oil or gas well. Smaller diameter pipes can sustain much larger pressures than large diameter pipes.
Iron roughneck
An iron roughneck is a piece of hydraulic machinery used to "handle" (connect and disconnect) segments of pipe in a modern drilling rig. The segments can be manipulated as they are hoisted into and out of a borehole. This type of work was previously performed manually by workers using tongs, and was one of the most dangerous jobs in a drilling operation. However, with iron roughnecks and modern technology, much of this can be done remotely with minimal manual handling.
Idaho Conservation League
In addition to protecting against mining contamination, Idaho Conservation League works to protect Idaho’s ground water from hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as “fracking,” a process used in natural gas extraction. When a natural gas company began exploration in western Idaho in 2011, ICL asked the Idaho oil and Gas Conservation Commission to prohibit carcinogenic chemicals and require companies to provide a bond protecting Idaho communities in the case of a fracking emergency. ICL has one main goal in regards to fracking, that "Idaho has rules protective of the people's groundwater" that set limitations on the use of hazardous substances.
Environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing in the United States
Hydraulic fracturing uses abundant amounts of sand in the process of fracturing as part of the hydraulic fluid. The fracturing fluid consists of a base fluid, proppant and chemical additives. The majority of proppant used in fracturing are made of silica (sand). Truck loads of sand are delivered to the sites, then loaded to sand movers that are then transferred to a blender that mixes the hydraulic fluid. The hydraulic fluid is injected at high pressure into the fracture. The proppant keeps the fracture open to allow more oil and gas to be extracted out.
Drill
A magnetic drill is a portable machine for drilling holes in large and heavy workpieces which are difficult to move or bring to a stationary conventional drilling machine. It has a magnetic base and drills holes with the help of cutting tools like annular cutters (broach cutters) or with twist drill bits. There are various types depending on their operations and specializations, like magnetic drilling cum tapping machines, cordless, pneumatic, compact horizontal, automatic feed, cross table base etc.
Hydraulic fracturing in the United States
While relatively new in the public spotlight of Colorado fracking in the state has actually been going on since the 1973 when the first large scale fracking operation began in the Wattenberg gas field in weld county, CO. 1992 there were two landmark decisions made in Colorado that were upheld by the supreme court, these were La Plata and Voss counties in Colorado. The La Plata county ruling held up an ordinance that oil and gas companies must receive special permitting from the county commissioner or planning staff before drilling can begin. The ruling in Voss county upheld a ban on hydraulic fracturing in Greeley, CO as it is a home-ruled municipality, this ban was being challenged by the oil and gas industry. The next major ruling on fracking in Colorado came in 2012 when Longmont passed ballot measure 300, banning hydraulic fracturing and other uses of hydrocarbons for the extraction of gas and oil. The Colorado oil and gas association is currently suing Longmont over the ballot measure and the case has yet to be argued. In 2013 flooding in the Colorado front range caused 14 oil spills totaling 48,000 gallons of oil spilled into the Colorado front range.
Hydraulic fracturing in the United States
Hydraulic fracturing of shales goes back at least to 1965, when some operators in the Big Sandy gas field of eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia started hydraulically fracturing the Ohio Shale and Cleveland Shale, using relatively small fracs. The frac jobs generally increased production, especially from lower-yielding wells.
Drill
In contrast to the cam-type hammer drill, a rotary/pneumatic hammer drill accelerates only the bit. This is accomplished through a piston design, rather than a spinning cam. Rotary hammers have much less vibration and penetrate most building materials. They can also be used as "drill only" or as "hammer only" which extends their usefulness for tasks such as chipping brick or concrete. Hole drilling progress is greatly superior to cam-type hammer drills, and these drills are generally used for holes of 19 mm (3/4 inch) or greater in size. A typical application for a rotary hammer drill is boring large holes for lag bolts in foundations, or installing large lead anchors in concrete for handrails or benches.
Drill bit shank
It has been difficult to find a reference to the included angle of the taper, but 7 different bits were measured, and they all had an included angle of 8 ± 0.25 degrees.The straight shank is the most usual style on modern drill bits, by number manufactured. The whole of the drill bit, shaft and shank, is usually of the same diameter. It is held usually in a three-jaw drill chuck. Bits of diameter too small to grip firmly can have straight shanks of larger diameter than the drill, which can be held firmly in a standard size collet or chuck. Large drill bits can have straight shanks narrower than the drill diameter so that they can be fitted in chucks not able to chuck the full diameter. Such a drill bit is called a reduced-shank or blacksmith's drill. For example, this allows a bit to be used in a pistol-grip drill's chuck. One particular type of reduced-shank drill bits are Silver & Deming (S&D) bits, whose sets run from to drill body diameter with a standard reduced shank for all. This allows drill presses with chucks to run the larger drills. S&D bits are long with a flute length. The name comes from a company in Salem, Ohio that broke up into other companies circa 1890; bits of this design were popularized by that company.The flats of a hex shank can either be machined on a round shank, as in the photograph, or be the natural flats of hex bar stock. A hex shank can be grasped by a 3-jaw drill chuck or held in a chuck specifically for hex shanks. Quarter-inch hex shanks are common for machine screwdriver bits and have spread from that application to be used for drill bits that are compatible with screwdriver machinery.
Drill pipe
Drill pipe, is hollow, thin-walled, steel or aluminium alloy piping that is used on drilling rigs. It is hollow to allow drilling fluid to be pumped down the hole through the bit and back up the annulus. It comes in a variety of sizes, strengths, and wall thicknesses, but is typically 27 to 32 feet in length (Range 2). Longer lengths, up to 45 feet, exist (Range 3).
Hydraulic fracturing
Hydraulic fracturing of shales goes back at least to 1965, when some operators in the Big Sandy gas field of eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia started hydraulically fracturing the Ohio Shale and Cleveland Shale, using relatively small fracs. The frac jobs generally increased production, especially from lower-yielding wells.
Hydraulic fracturing and radionuclides
Hydraulic fracturing is the propagation of fractures in a rock layer by pressurized fluid. Induced hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracking, commonly known as fracking, is a technique used to release petroleum, natural gas (including shale gas, tight gas and coal seam gas), or other substances for extraction. Radionuclides are associated with hydraulic fracturing in two main ways. Injection of man-made radioactive tracers, along with the other substances in hydraulic-fracturing fluid, is often used to determine the injection profile and location of fractures created by hydraulic fracturing. In addition, hydraulic fracturing releases naturally occurring heavy metals and radioactive materials from shale deposits, and these substances return to the surface with flowback, also referred to as wastewater.
Plough
The "mole plough" allows underdrainage to be installed without trenches, or it breaks up deep impermeable soil layers that impede drainage. It is a very deep plough, with a torpedo-shaped or wedge-shaped tip, and a narrow blade connecting this to the body. When dragged through the ground, it leaves a channel deep under the ground, and this acts as a drain. Modern mole ploughs may also bury a flexible perforated plastic drain pipe as they go, making a more permanent drain – or they may be used to lay pipes for water supply or other purposes. Similar machines, so called pipe-and-cable-laying ploughs, are even used under the sea, for the laying of cables, as well as preparing the earth for side-scan sonar in a process used in oil exploration.
Skytruth
SkyTruth's FrackFinder project utilizes public crowd sourcing to map fracking operations on the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations. SkyTruth has mapped out fracking well pads and retainment ponds in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, with further plans to quantify the total impact halos of fracking operations underway. FrackFinder data is publicly available through GitHub. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University used SkyTruth's FrackFinder data to link hydraulic fracturing activity to premature birth, high risk pregnancies, migraines, fatigue, and chronic nasal and sinus symptoms.
Directional drilling
Wells are drilled directionally for several purposes:Most directional drillers are given a blue well path to follow that is predetermined by engineers and geologists before the drilling commences. When the directional driller starts the drilling process, periodic surveys are taken with a downhole instrument to provide survey data (inclination and azimuth) of the well bore. These pictures are typically taken at intervals between 10–150 meters (30–500 feet), with 30 meters (90 feet) common during active changes of angle or direction, and distances of 60–100 meters (200–300 feet) being typical while "drilling ahead" (not making active changes to angle and direction). During critical angle and direction changes, especially while using a downhole motor, a measurement while drilling) (MWD) tool will be added to the drill string to provide continuously updated measurements that may be used for (near) real-time adjustments.
Friction drilling
Friction drilling is commonly used on bicycle frames, heat exchangers, and to create holes for mounting bearings.
Cranial drill
A cranial drill is currently used for Neurosurgery operations. The procedure of trepanning is applied to patients who suffer for example a traumatic brain injury or a stroke. In these cases, it might be necessary to drill a hole in the skull to be able to access the dura mater or the brain itself, and to relieve brain pressure or blood clots. With the use of modern types of cranial drills, surgeons are able to create holes in the bone structure without traumatizing underlying brain tissue. The drill's working tool tip consists of a spiral blade that is framed by a guard device with an angled cranium guide that rests against the inner layer of the skull bone. The dura guard pushes the dura mater downward while the craniotome is moved forward thus preventing dural tearing.
Natural gas
Determining which fracking technique is appropriate for well productivity depends largely on the properties of the reservoir rock from which to extract oil or gas. If the rock is characterized by low-permeability — which refers to its ability to let substances, i.e. gas, pass through it, then the rock may be considered a source of tight gas. Fracking for shale gas, which is currently also known as a source of unconventional gas, involves drilling a borehole vertically until it reaches a lateral shale rock formation, at which point the drill turns to follow the rock for hundreds or thousands of feet horizontally. In contrast, conventional oil and gas sources are characterized by higher rock permeability, which naturally enables the flow of oil or gas into the wellbore with less intensive hydraulic fracturing techniques than the production of tight gas has required. The decades in development of drilling technology for conventional and unconventional oil and gas production has not only improved access to natural gas in low-permeability reservoir rocks, but also posed significant adverse impacts on environmental and public health.
Drillship
There are different types of offshore drilling units such as the oil platform, jackup rig, submersible drilling rig, semi-submersible platform and of course drillships. All drillships have what is called a ”moon pool”. The Moon pool is an opening on the base of the hull and depending on the mission the vessel is on, drilling equipment, small submersible crafts and divers may pass through the moon pool. Since the drillship is also a vessel, it can easily relocate to any desired location. But due to their mobility, drillships are not as stable compared to semi-submersible platforms. To maintain its position, drillships may utilize their anchors or use the ship’s computer-controlled system on board to run off their Dynamic positioning.
Hydraulic fracturing in the United States
On May 24, 2012, House of Representatives of Ohio passed Senate Bill 315 regulating oil and gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing. The bill requires companies to test water wells within of proposed drill sites and to report the fluids and chemicals used while drilling and fracking, except for those considered proprietary. Companies will also be required to track wastewater injected into disposal wells.
According to John Funk of "The Plain Dealer", the bill does not require complete disclosure of all chemicals used during drilling and hydraulic fracturing, and only requires any disclosure of chemicals after the well is already drilled. Proprietary formulas are protected. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is allowed up to 60 days after drilling to post the chemicals on its website. Opponents had wanted the bill to require chemicals to be disclosed before drilling so that citizens could have their wells tested for baseline levels of contaminants. The Ohio Senate also removed the requirement for disclosure of drilling lubricants in the space below the local water table but above its final depth. The bill does not give the public the right to appeal a drilling permit, and does not require public notices of permits. The bill allows doctors to reveal the formula only to the patient, family and other doctors solely for the purpose of treatment, not in legal or other proceedings.
Friction drilling
Friction drilling is a method of making holes in metal in which the material is pushed out of the way with the aid of heat from friction. The process is also called thermal drilling, flow drilling, form drilling, or friction stir drilling.
Well drilling
The factors effecting drill bit selection include the type of geology and the capabilities of the rig. Due to the high number of wells that have been drilled, information from an adjacent well is most often used to make the appropriate selection. Two different types of drill bits exist: fixed cutter and roller cone. A fixed cutter bit is one where there are no moving parts, but drilling occurs due to shearing, scraping or abrasion of the rock. Fixed cutter bits can be either polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) or grit hotpressed inserts (GHI) or natural diamond. Roller cone bits can be either tungsten carbide inserts (TCI) for harder formations or milled tooth (MT) for softer rock. The manufacturing process and composites used in each type of drill bit make them ideal for specific drilling situations. Additional enhancements can be made to any bit to increase the effectiveness for almost any drilling situation.
Hydraulic fracturing in the United Kingdom
Hydraulic fracturing is a well-stimulation technique in which rock is fractured by a hydraulically pressurized fluid. This process is also known as 'fracking'. Hydraulic fracturing requires a borehole to be drilled to target depth in the reservoir. For oil and gas production, hydraulically fractured wells can be horizontal or vertical, while the reservoir can be conventional or unconventional. After the well has been drilled, lined, and geophysically logged, the rock can be hydraulically fractured.
Drill
For much of the 20th century, many attachments could commonly be purchased to convert corded electric hand drills into a range of other power tools, such as orbital sanders and power saws, more cheaply than purchasing dedicated versions of those tools. As the prices of power tools and suitable electric motors have fallen such attachments have become much less common. A similar practice is currently employed for cordless tools where the battery, the most expensive component, is shared between various compatible devices.
A cordless drill is an electric drill which uses rechargeable batteries. These drills are available with similar features to an AC mains-powered drill. These are the most common type of drill. They are available in the hammer drill configuration and most have a clutch, which aids in driving screws into various substrates while not damaging them. Also available are right angle drills, which allow a worker to drive screws in a tight space. While 21st century battery innovations allow significantly more drilling, large diameter holes (typically or larger) may drain current cordless drills quickly.
Barbara Hendricks (politician)
In early 2015, Hendricks proposed a new draft law that imposes an outright ban on fracking for shale gas in the following years and only allow scientific test drilling under strict conditions to assess the risks and environmental impact. The resulting legislation that passed the cabinet in April 2015 softened her line somewhat, restricting fracking until 2019, after which commercial fracking could only go forward after passing various tough regulatory hurdles. The legislation, however, allows fracking for deep-lying or "tight" gas, a technology that has been used for decades in Germany.
Well drilling
A major factor in drill bit selection is the type of formation to be drilled. The effectiveness of a drill bit varies by formation type. There are three types of formations: soft, medium and hard. A soft formation includes unconsolidated sands, clays, soft limestones, red beds and shale. Medium formations include calcites, dolomites, limestones, and hard shale. Hard formations include hard shale, calcites, mudstones, cherty lime stones and hard and abrasive formations.
Core drill
The earliest core drills were those used by the ancient Egyptians, invented in 3000 BC. Core drills are used for many applications, either where the core needs to be preserved (the drilling apparatus used in obtaining a core sample is often referred to as a corer), or where drilling can be done more rapidly since much less material needs to be removed than with a standard bit. This is the reason that diamond-tipped core drills are commonly used in construction to create holes for pipes, manholes, and other large-diameter penetrations in concrete or stone.
Drifter drill
A drifter drill or drifter is a hydraulic or pneumatic rock or ground drill used to make horizontal holes in tunnel construction and mining. It is mounted on a feed, which is like a rail that the drill travels on or drifts. This kind of drilling procedure is also called drifting. The feed is usually attached with a flexible boom (like an arm) to a stationary or mobile unit that contains the powerpack (engine and hydraulic pump or compressor). Drifters are used in mining, construction, exploration, and natural science.
Turbodrill
A turbodrill is a tool used mostly by petrochemical companies to dig wells for crude oil and natural gas reserves.Turbodrills use the mechanical energy of the drill itself, and the hydraulic energy provided by the oil rig’s mud pumps to deliver power to the drill bit. The drill bit on a turbodrill spins much faster than on a conventional motor drill. The result is that, though there is less torque, this is compensated for by the increased speed, which makes straighter holes, and can drill faster and easier through tougher ground materials. The process is very similar to a dental drill used by a dentist. These tools are able to dig faster, operate in a much higher temperature environment, deliver longer downhole life, and produce a better and straighter hole quality than a conventional mud motor. In many applications turbodrills can offer their customers significant cost savings over standard drilling systems by saving them time spent drilling the hole since they typically pay drillers by the hour.
Drill bit (well)
In the oil and gas industry, a drill bit is a tool designed to produce a generally cylindrical hole (wellbore) in the earth’s crust by the rotary drilling method for the discovery and extraction of hydrocarbons such as crude oil and natural gas. This type of tool is alternately referred to as a rock bit, or simply a bit. The hole diameter produced by drill bits is quite small, from about to , compared to the depth of the hole, which can range from to more than . Subsurface formations are broken apart mechanically by cutting elements of the bit by scraping, grinding or localized compressive fracturing. The cuttings produced by the bit are most typically removed from the wellbore and continuously returned to the surface by the method of direct circulation.
Environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing in the United States
Hydraulic fracturing routinely triggers microseismic events too small to be detected except with sensitive instruments. However, according to the US Geological Survey: “Reports of hydraulic fracturing causing earthquakes large enough to be felt at the surface are extremely rare, with only three occurrences reported as of late 2012, in Great Britain, Oklahoma, and Canada.” Bill Ellsworth, a geoscientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, has said, however: "We don't see any connection between fracking and earthquakes of any concern to society." The National Research Council (part of the National Academy of Sciences) has also observed that hydraulic fracturing, when used in shale gas recovery, does not pose a serious risk of causing earthquakes that can be felt.
Magnetic drilling machine
The base of a magnetic drill is equipped with a powerful electromagnet to easily clamp the machine on the work piece to be drilled. When energized this magnet is held on the metal work piece locking the machine base to the surface. The electromagnet plays a very important role in a portable magnetic drill, as it helps the machine to be steady, does not let the machine dismount during drilling, can work with the machine overhead, horizontal or vertical. Generally, a magnetic core drilling machine is used on a ferrous material directly, but it can also be used on non-ferrous material like aluminum with the help of clamping devices.
Drilling fluid
Many types of drilling fluids are used on a day-to-day basis. Some wells require that different types be used at different parts in the hole, or that some types be used in combination with others. The various types of fluid generally fall into a few broad categories:On a drilling rig, mud is pumped from the "mud pits" through the drill string where it sprays out of nozzles on the drill bit, cleaning and cooling the drill bit in the process. The mud then carries the crushed or cut rock ("cuttings") up the annular space ("annulus") between the drill string and the sides of the hole being drilled, up through the surface "casing," where it emerges back at the surface. Cuttings are then filtered out with either a shale shaker, or the newer shale conveyor technology, and the mud returns to the "mud pits". The mud pits let the drilled "fines" settle; the pits are also where the fluid is treated by adding chemicals and other substances.
Drilling
There are two main technologies of vibration drilling: self-maintained vibration systems and forced vibration systems. Most vibration drilling technologies are still at a research stage. In the case of self-maintained vibration drilling, the eigenfrequency of the tool is used in order to make it naturally vibrate while cutting; vibrations are self-maintained by a mass-spring system included in the tool holder. Other works use a piezoelectric system to generate and control the vibrations. These systems allow high vibration frequencies (up to 2 kHz) for small magnitude (about a few micrometers); they are particularly suitable for drilling small holes. Finally, vibrations can be generated by mechanical systems: the frequency is given by the combination of the rotation speed and the number of oscillation per rotation (a few oscillations per rotation), with magnitude about 0.1 mm.
Churn drill
Churn drills were invented as early as 221 BC in Qin Dynasty China, capable of reaching a depth of 1500 m. Churn drills in ancient China were built of wood and labor-intensive, but were able to go through solid rock. The churn drill was transmitted to Europe during the 12th century. A churn drill using steam power, based on "the ancient Chinese method of lifting and dropping a rod tipped with a bit," was first built in 1835 by Isaac Singer in the United States, according to "The History of Grinding". In America, they were common in the Tri-State areas during the lead and zinc mining in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
Drilling and blasting
Drilling and blasting is the controlled use of explosives and other methods such as gas pressure blasting pyrotechnics, to break rock for excavation. It is practiced most often in mining, quarrying and civil engineering such as dam, tunnel or road construction. The result of rock blasting is often known as a rock cut.
Ice drilling
Only one such rig, the rapid air movement (RAM) system developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by Ice Coring and Drilling Services (ICDS), has been used for ice drilling. The RAM drill was developed in the early 2000s, and was originally designed for drilling shot holes for seismic exploration. The drill stem is a hose through which air is pumped; the air drives a turbine that powers a downhole rotary drill bit. Ice cuttings are removed by the exhaust air and fountain out of the hole. The compressor increases the temperature of the air by about 50°, and it is cooled again before being pumped downhole, with a final temperature about 10° warmer than the ambient air. This means it cannot be used in ambient temperatures warmer than −10 °C. To avoid ice forming in the hose, ethanol is added to the compressed air. The system, which includes a winch to hold 100 m of hose, as well as two air compressors, is mounted on a sled. It has successfully drilling hundreds of holes in West Antarctica, and was easily able to drill to 90 m in only 25 minutes, making it the fastest ice drill. It was also used by the Askaryan Radio Array project in 2010–2011 at the South Pole, but was unable to drill below 63 m there because of variations in the local characteristics of the ice and firn. It cannot be used in a fluid-filled hole, which limits the maximum hole depth for this design. The main problem with the RAM drill is a loss of air circulation in firn and snow, which might be addressed by using reverse air circulation, via a vacuum pump drawing air up through the hose. As of 2017 IDDO is planning a revised design for the RAM drill to reduce the weight of the drill, which is currently 10.3 tonnes.
Gold dredge
Today dredges are versatile and popular consisting of both floating surface dredges that use a vacuum to suck gravel from the bottom and submersible dredges.
Large dredges are still operating in several countries of South America (Peru, Brasil, Guyana, Columbia), Asia (Russia, China, Mongolia Papua-Newguinea) and Africa (Sierra Leone). In 2015, gold miner Tony Beets reconstructed a 70-year-old dredge (as seen in the popular TV series, Gold Rush, on the Discovery channel.). As of 2016, this is the only operating large dredge in the Klondike. However, he is currently working on fixing up a second dredge 33% larger than the first one. In Season 7 Episode 20, titled Dredge vs Washplant, it was shown that in a 2 day test the running costs of the dredge were approximately 25% of those of running a washplant and feeding it with heavy equipment.
Drilling
Deep hole drilling is generally achievable with a few tooling methods, usually gun drilling or BTA drilling. These are differentiated due to the coolant entry method (internal or external) and chip removal method (internal or external). Using methods such as a rotating tool and counter-rotating workpiece are common techniques to achieve required straightness tolerances. Secondary tooling methods include trepanning, skiving and burnishing, pull boring, or bottle boring. Finally a new kind of drilling technology is available to face this issue: vibration drilling. This technology breaks up the chips by a small controlled axial vibration of the drill. The small chips are easily removed by the flutes of the drill.
Pile driver
A piling rig is a construction machine for piling in foundation engineering. It is mainly applied to drill in sandy soil, clay, silty clay, etc. and widely used cast-in-place piles, diaphragm walls, foundation reinforcement and other foundation projects. Its rated power of engine is around 108–450 kW, output torque 60–400 kN•m, maximum pile diameter 1.5–4 m, maximum pile depth 60–90 m. It can meet construction requirement of kinds of foundation engineering projects. It generally applies hydraulic crawler chassis, automatic lift box-type mast, telescopic drill pipe, auto vertical adjustor, depth indicator, etc. Its operation applies hydraulic pilot control, load sensor, thus is easy to control. Main and auxiliary hoisting can meet different requirements in construction sites. The rig can be used on piling construction in dry (short screw), wet soil (rotary bucket) and rock (core drill) by equipping with drilling tool, and can be equipped with long screw drill, diaphragm wall grab, vibratory hammer, etc., to achieve many functions. It is mainly used in foundation engineering of municipal construction, expressway, bridge, industrial and civil buildings, diaphragm wall, water conservancy project, and slope protection.The underwater sound pressure caused by pile-driving may be deleterious to nearby fish. State and local regulatory agencies manage environment issues associated with pile-driving.
Vail Pass Camp
Drills are tools that “serve as rotary perforating implements.” (Irwin and Wormington 1970) Types of drill found are plain shafted drills, flanged, and modified flakes. Plain shafted drills aren’t well documented and were projectile points that were reworked. They were most likely used for simple tasks and probably cannot be used as horizon markers. Flanged drills are the most typical drill in prehistoric sites. They were most likely manufactured from a flake blank and were handheld. The modified flakes were probably used as a hafted tool and had steep edge retouch. The modified flakes were the only one to demonstrate drill wear in that rings are noticeable on the drills with actual use as a drill.
Threading (manufacturing)
Thrilling is the process of threading and drilling (accomplished in the reverse order) internal threads using a specialized cutting tool on a CNC mill. The cutting tool tip is shaped like a drill or center-cutting endmill, while the body has a thread-shaped form with a countersink cutter form near the shank. The cutter first plunges to drill the hole. Then the thread is circularly interpolated just like the multiple-form cutter described above. This tool drills, chamfers, and threads a hole all in one compact cycle. The advantage is this process eliminates a tool, tool-holder, and tool change. The disadvantage is that the process is limited to hole depth no greater than three times the diameter of the tool.
A method of helical broaching was developed in the 2010s that shortens the toolpath of tapping. To a casual observer (without slow motion), it looks rather similar to traditional tapping but with faster movement into and out of the hole. It uses a specific tool geometry and toolpath to position rapidly, broach the thread in a single half-turn, and then retract rapidly, shortening the cycle time and consuming less energy. It reduces the cost of threading for any holes that can safely allow the two small fast-helix grooves that it leaves behind along with the thread, which could be true in many applications.
Safety wire
Because the use of twisted safety wire to secure fasteners requires the fasteners to be drilled, tool makers offer drill jigs to help technicians drill the fasteners to be secured. Although pre-drilled fasteners can be obtained, most fasteners to be secured start out never having been intended to be secured (e.g., a production motorcycle which was built for the street but which has been converted into a race-bike). Such fasteners need to be drilled. Drilling them is often difficult as, due to their small size and irregular shape, securing them properly and applying a drill effectively can be trying. As a result, technicians often break drill bits or damage the fastener when the bit slides off position. A useful tool is a drill press, because it allows the technician to apply the force of the drill bit directly to the fastener being drilled and eliminates lateral movement; but even with a press the fastener needs to be secured to prevent it from sliding out from beneath the bit. Even though drill presses ease the process, a press isn't always available, such as at a race event; and even with a press, the problem of securing the fastener still exists. To solve those problems, jigs are available which are designed to securely hold the fastener while providing a guide-channel for a drill bit (with either a hand drill or a press) so that the technician can easily and directly apply force from the drill to the fastener without having it slip off or breaking the bit.
Dardick tround
The Tround Terra-drill is described in patent 4,004,642, issued to Dardick in 1977. The Terra-drill is a drill head that combines a traditional drill bit with the SALVO tround. The tround is used to break through hard spots that the drill bit cannot readily penetrate. This version uses four ceramic bullets, which shatter upon impacting the rock, and which in turn are intended to fracture the rock to allow the drill bit to proceed. The tround is designed such that each projectile impacts the target at a slightly different time, imparting multiple shocks to create constructive interference of the shock waves in the target material.
Drilling rig
Diamond drilling is much slower than reverse circulation (RC) drilling due to the hardness of the ground being drilled. Drilling of 1200 to 1800 metres is common and at these depths, ground is mainly hard rock. Techniques vary among drill operators and what the rig they are using is capable of, some diamond rigs need to drill slowly to lengthen the life of drill bits and rods, which are very expensive and time consuming to replace at extremely deep depths. As a diamond drill rig cores deeper and deeper the time consuming part of the process is not cutting 5 to 10 more feet of rock core but the retrieval of the core with the wire line & overshot tool.
Core samples are retrieved via the use of a core tube, a hollow tube placed inside the rod string and pumped with water until it locks into the core barrel. As the core is drilled, the core barrel slides over the core as it is cut. An "overshot" attached to the end of the winch cable is lowered inside the rod string and locks on to the backend (aka head assembly), located on the top end of the core barrel. The winch is retracted, pulling the core tube to the surface. The core does not drop out of the inside of the core tube when lifted because either a split ring core lifter or basket retainer allow the core to move into, but not back out of the tube.
Once the core tube is removed from the hole, the core sample is then removed from the core tube and catalogued. The Driller's assistant unscrews the backend off the core tube using tube wrenches, then each part of the tube is taken and the core is shaken out into core trays. The core is washed, measured and broken into smaller pieces using a hammer or sawn through to make it fit into the sample trays. Once catalogued, the core trays are retrieved by geologists who then analyse the core and determine if the drill site is a good location to expand future mining operations.
Underbalanced drilling
Underbalanced drilling, or UBD, is a procedure used to drill oil and gas wells where the pressure in the wellbore is kept lower than the static pressure then the formation being drilled. As the well is being drilled, formation fluid flows into the wellbore and up to the surface. This is the opposite of the usual situation, where the wellbore is kept at a pressure above the formation to prevent formation fluid entering the well. In such a conventional "overbalanced" well, the invasion of fluid is considered a kick, and if the well is not shut-in it can lead to a blowout, a dangerous situation. In underbalanced drilling, however, there is a "rotating head" at the surface - essentially a seal that diverts produced fluids to a separator while allowing the drill string to continue rotating.
Environmental issues in Appalachia
Fracking is a colloquial term for "horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing." During the 19th century natural gas was easy to extract from moderate depths using vertical wells. Sometimes wells were not needed at all because the gas was so plentiful it would bubble up from the ground. As non-renewable energy resources become more scarce, advances in fracking technology have allowed access to natural gas reserves accumulated in shale formations. Reserves of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale rock formation are valued at around $500 billion in Pennsylvania alone. 
While coal production in Appalachia has been in decline, advances in fracking technology have contributed to the regional "natural gas boom." The coal deposit of eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia's coal fields have been mined longer than other reserves in the United States. The remaining deposits in these areas are deeper and the costs of extraction has increased.
Drilling
Gun drilling was originally developed to drill out gun barrels and is used commonly for drilling smaller diameter deep holes. The depth-to-diameter ratio can be even greater than 300:1. The key feature of gun drilling is that the bits are self-centering; this is what allows for such deep accurate holes. The bits use a rotary motion similar to a twist drill; however, the bits are designed with bearing pads that slide along the surface of the hole keeping the drill bit on center. Gun drilling is usually done at high speeds and low feed rates.
Cranial drill
A cranial drill is an essential instrument used by surgeons to drill in to the skull bone.
Various types of drills are used by surgeons from the craniotomy, or oral surgeries. The cranial drill can be differentiated by the examinations of what kind of surgery have to be performed. They can be manually operated, operated by electricity, or by pneumatic motors.
Jackup rig
This type of rig is commonly used in connection with oil and/or natural gas drilling. There are more jackup rigs in the worldwide offshore rig fleet than other type of mobile offshore drilling rig. Other types of offshore rigs include semi-submersibles (which float on pontoon-like structures) and drillships, which are ship-shaped vessels with rigs mounted in their center. These rigs drill through holes in the drillship hulls, known as moon pools.
Drilling rig
helical]] screw which is driven into the ground with rotation; the earth is lifted up the borehole by the blade of the screw. Hollow stem auger drilling is used for softer ground such as swamps where the hole will not stay open by itself for environmental drilling, geotechnical drilling, soil engineering and geochemistry reconnaissance work in exploration for mineral deposits. Solid flight augers/bucket augers are used in harder ground construction drilling. In some cases, mine shafts are dug with auger drills. Small augers can be mounted on the back of a utility truck, with large augers used for sinking piles for bridge foundations.
Persian drill
A Persian drill is a drill which is turned by pushing a nut back and forth along a spirally grooved drill holder. It was formerly used for delicate operations such as jewellery making and dentistry. A ratcheting screwdriver with a 'spiral ratchet' mechanism may be used as a Persian drill.
Drilling
Centre drill is A two-fluted tool consisting of a twist drill with a 60° countersink; used to drill countersink center holes in a work piece to be mounted between centers for turning or grinding.
Hydraulic fracturing
There have been many protests directed at hydraulic fracturing. For example, ten people were arrested in 2013 during an anti-fracking protest near New Matamoras, Ohio, after they illegally entered a development zone and latched themselves to drilling equipment. In northwest Pennsylvania, there was a drive-by shooting at a well site, in which someone shot two rounds of a small-caliber rifle in the direction of a drilling rig, before shouting profanities at the site and fleeing the scene. In Washington County, Pennsylvania, a contractor working on a gas pipeline found a pipe bomb that had been placed where a pipeline was to be constructed, which local authorities said would have caused a "catastrophe" had they not discovered and detonated it.
Drilling rig
The most commonly used RC drill bits are 5-8 inches (13–20 cm) in diameter and have round tungsten 'buttons' that protrude from the bit, which are required to drill through shale and abrasive rock. As the buttons wear down, drilling becomes slower and the rod string can potentially become bogged in the hole. This is a problem as trying to recover the rods may take hours and in some cases weeks. The rods and drill bits themselves are very expensive, often resulting in great cost to drilling companies when equipment is lost down the bore hole. Most companies will regularly re-grind the buttons on their drill bits in order to prevent this, and to speed up progress. Usually, when something is lost (breaks off) in the hole, it is not the drill string, but rather from the bit, hammer, or stabilizer to the bottom of the drill string (bit). This is usually caused by operator error, over-stressed metal, or adverse drilling conditions causing downhole equipment to get stuck in a part of the hole.
Ice drilling
A cable-suspended drill has a downhole system, known as a sonde, to drill the hole. The sonde is connected to the surface by an armoured cable, which provides power and enables the drill to be winched in and out of the hole. Electromechanical (EM) cable-suspended drills have a cutting head, with blades that shave the ice as they rotate, like a carpenter's plane. The depth of penetration of the cut is adjusted by a device called a shoe, which is part of the cutting head. The ice cuttings are stored in a chamber in the sonde, either in the core barrel, above the core, or in a separate chamber, further up the drill.