Now supplying the world’s markets with more oil than it did in the peak of the 70s, today America is set to become the world’s largest oil producer. Considering that oil prices today aren’t anywhere near as encouraging as they used to be, the boom in production is unexpected.
Surprisingly, however, drillers today are making better profits with $60 oil that they did when oil was at twice these levels.
Technology has helped make drilling more cost-effective
Exploration and production major ConocoPhillips has stated that the company could break even at $40 a barrel. Technology is the reason drilling is profitable at today’s low prices – tremendous advancements have made drilling cheaper.
If drillers used the same fracking techniques today that they did a decade ago, they wouldn’t be as profitable. Often called Fracking 2.0, new fracking methods allow drillers to pack compact fracking units on trucks and set up new operations in hours. They drill wells that branch horizontally for miles around to access oil that would have been unreachable a few years ago.
More robots than workers
Set up with a dozen computer screens, fracking vans can be impressive-looking operations. They are nothing, however, compared to the array of autonomous rigs, drones, robots and smart drill bits that they remotely control. Managed by experts studying the data that these activities generate, these drilling stations are more cost-effective than older, labor-intensive operations. While these changes do not generate good employment figures, they certainly are safer and far more cost-effective.
According to Sigma Drilling Technologies, a major manufacturer of the pulsation control solutions that go into these setups, all that drilling contractors need to do today is to keep on top of pulsation dampener maintenance and other concerns. This ensures that their super-lean operations hum along. With profits pouring in, this is one of the best times to be in the drilling business.
