-Physics of Drilling-

Today multilateral drilling is the most efficient means of production. Historically vertical drilling across close intervals has been the dominant technique. The first step in multilateral drilling (and any modern drilling technique) is to set wider protective casings reatively shallow in the ground. After the casings are in place the well is then drilled down virtically to the depth of the reservoir containing any given substance. At this point a new cement casing is created and an elbow is placed in the well to initiate the turn out of the newly set casing. The well is drilled horizantally into the heart of the reservoir where another casing is set. Tubes with explosive charges called perforating guns are sent into the reservoir and detonated, this opens the casing and fractures the rock around it allowing the reservoir substance to more easily flow into the well. A "propent" usually composed of water and sand is then injected into the cracks around the well in order to keep the fractures from collapsing. After this the substance can flow into the well and up to the surface.

Techniques for drilling have been the auger, then the development of cable drilling and various drilling bits, manpower and domesticad animals have made way for massive gas powered motors.