Technology is not only streamlining the world around us, it's helping Texas keep its reputation as the world leader in oil and natural gas.*
"We're doing work that's four or five times better than it used to be [in the oil fields] because we're getting to that much more oil" in the fields of West Texas, Pecos Country Energy Vice President of Operations Rey "R. T." Trevino says.
Computer operations are allowing petroleum engineers to locate oil underground, figure the best ways to siphon off that oil through "softer" rock, then helping find the most efficient ways to cut through the harder rock safely, using increasingly cleaner methods.
The results, Trevino says, are something of a breakthrough.
"That means we drill the equivalent of four or five wells, when we really only drill one well."
He explains that with the latest technology, it's now most efficient to drill one large oil and gas well straight down, then send down the well several drills that extend in five or six different directions, cutting through rock and reaching pockets of oil underground a mile or more from the well site, cutting through the earth in many directions.
Some rock is "softer," or easier to bore through, than others, and artificial intelligence is helping decide the best tools and the best drill bits to use when drilling "laterally" or "sideways" underground from the one well drilled, saving wear and tear on hardware and avoiding cutting into rock surrounding water supplies or material that could present an environmental threat on the surface.
The tech "is making it easier, because you have to understand that of the 14 million barrels of oil a day that the US produces, Texas alone produces 6 million barrels of that itself."
"The other thing we're looking forward to is how seismic is going to get more advanced and with the help of AI, how it's only going to grow and get more efficient as well," Trevino concluded.
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*Texas also leads the nation in renewable energy such as solar and wind power, but you knew that, right?