In the years passed, oil contractors got a bad reputation simply because the equipment that was used was crude and too undeveloped to be as efficient as it could. These commonly used tools were infamous for leaving property owners with acres of damaged land that had been mined for resources and left environmentally unsound. Thankfully, modern advances in technology and mechanical engineering have completely altered what can be accomplished with very little interruption to the natural habitat of oil mining sites. Directional drilling is one of those advances that has evolved the oil mining industry into a highly efficient operating platform.

To understand the benefits of directional drilling, you must first take a closer look at how this process works, what it involves, and how it is different from outdated methods. The benefits are not just for the oil industry, but for property owners as well. If you are the owner of a property rich with natural resources, you can gain a whole new appreciation for modern oil mining, and walk away feeling better about oil drilling in general.

Just what does directional drilling mean?

The equipment that was used for drilling purposes in the past was only capable of diving into the ground from a vertical perspective.Several years later, a folding arm was added to early models that allowed drills to move into the ground at an angle. Modern rills have the capability to move and flex in varying directions, even after the drill is underground. Therefore, the bit can go into the ground vertically, take a turn left to avoid a rock mass, and then take a angled dive to reach oil reserves. This is accomplished through the use of steerable drill mechanisms that can flex and bend as needed and a specialized use of GPS technology.

What are the key benefits of directional drilling?

The flexibility of directional drilling offers an entire list of beneficial points. A few of the most apparent include:

• Fewer upper-level disturbances because less access points are necessary to retrieve oil
• Less of an environmental impact on valuable topsoil
• The ability to reach further depths and oil reserves
• Lack of drill fluid dispersion because aggregate and solid mass layers can be avoided

Directional drilling takes the idea of seeking oil beneath the ground to a level that is new and efficient. Most property owners find that once drilling is complete, the disturbance to their land is minimal, which is always important to not just the owner, but the environment and surrounding habitat as well.