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The following discussion of emerging drilling technologies will be limited to those technologies now coming into the market, not those, such as rotary steerable and multilateral technologies, that have ready reference on service company Internet websites. Hence, this discussion is not comprehensive, but it is intended to include most of the high-impact technologies that are likely to be commercialized in the next 3 to 5 years with a brief look beyond. The focus on drilling technology in the United States at the beginning of the 21st century is primarily in response to the fact that its remaining oil and gas resources exist in mature provinces of significantly depleted basins or in difficult drilling environments, such as the Arctic or the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Because the United States has led the world in petroleum demand, the environment of depletion and push for further development of these mature basins will provide lessons and technology immediately applicable to the rest of the world as the world resource base continues to mature. All nations have a stake and will benefit from this development of the next redefinition of drilling state of the art. The most basic requirement of drilling technology is that it provide safe, economic access to subsurface geologic formations to evaluate/optimize their production potential or to produce the resource existing there. The operative word is "economic." In high-cost environments, such as the deepwater offshore, technology is needed to maximize efficiency and to minimize time on location. In the onshore arena where reservoir potential is lower, the cost of accessing that potential also has to be reduced with such technologies as casing drilling. Also, with the advent of "unconventional resources" and fracture "sweet spots" as primary exploration targets, technology must provide a "smart drilling" capability to enhance finding these more difficult targets and to optimize access to the target in a manner that maximizes the production. Advances in technology in the past decade are not all simply random evolutionary advances but represent a step change in drilling technology.
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