Drilling rigs are used to create boreholes in the ground for various purposes, from oil and gas to mining and environmental exploration. They can vary greatly in size and use different methods, such as pumping mud and water or using compressed air. Portable rigs are becoming more specialized, with small robotic units and pumpjacks for quick positioning. Advanced deep-sea drilling technology is being developed, with Brazil leading the way. The deepest offshore drilling record is held by Russia.
A drilling rig is a mechanical structure designed primarily to create boreholes in the ground, known as shafts. Although the most common conception of a drilling rig is for use in offshore oil exploration and extraction, the drilling rig is actually used for a wide variety of purposes, from oil and gas to drilling of water wells, for mining and environmental exploration and construction purposes. The size of a drilling rig can also vary greatly depending on their needs, with portable units that can be trucked up to massive structures designed to penetrate miles into underwater terrain.
There are various methods to extract materials from underground or explore what is there with drilling rigs. The most common method with oil drilling rigs is to pump a slurry of mud and water containing chemicals such as bentonite clay to cool the diamond cutting head as it penetrates the earth. Other methods include the use of compressed air, such as the rotary impact air blast (RAB) drill most often used for mineral exploration. Sonic waves, superheated water jet drilling, and flamejet drilling, in which the drill surface is bombarded by a hydrogen flame at approximately 4,000° Celsius (7,232° Fahrenheit), are other methods used in the industry.
Portable onshore drilling for environmental, geothermal, construction and water well drilling is showing increasing specialization in drilling rig design. Small track-mounted robotic units that drill to 50 feet (15.24 meters) exist on platforms up to large platforms that can drill to 1,500 feet (457.2 meters) deep. These small-scale drills usually incorporate some form of pumpjack, which is a portable scaffolding system set up by foot pedals, that allows the user to quickly position the rig in various locations. Pumpjacks were a common sight on the US Texas frontier in the early days of oil exploration there, and are still used as convenient exploratory drilling systems.
As underground oil deposits become increasingly difficult to locate, oil rig technology to find these deposits is also advancing. Brazil is currently leading the world in its plans for advanced deep-sea drilling, with plans to drill large offshore fields that exist 5.6 miles (9 kilometers) below the ocean surface, including under 3.1 miles (5 kilometers) of solid rock and 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) of salt deposits. Typical drills in the Gulf of Mexico penetrate to a depth of less than 1 mile (1.6 kilometers). The deepest offshore drilling record is held by Russia, with the 7.7-mile-deep (12.4-kilometer) Sakhalin-I well drilled in 2011.
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