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Deepwater drilling for oil and gas has become possible due to rising prices and technological advances. The Gulf of Mexico has seen a significant increase in deepwater drilling rigs, but the Deepwater Horizon accident highlights the risks. Despite this, oil production continues to rely on deepwater drilling, with many shallow-water rigs idle. The increase in depth is significant compared to traditional drilling in the North Sea. The world record for deepwater drilling is 40,502 feet off the coast of Russia.
Deepwater drilling is the exploration for and extraction of oil and natural gas to depths of several thousand feet (about one thousand meters) as of 2011. Offshore oil drilling began commercially in the 1890s and, in early Since the 1970s, the first wells greater than 1,000 feet (305 meters) deep have been drilled. In the early 21st century, drilling began reaching several thousand feet, and a new term for drilling depth known as ultra-deep water, meaning 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) or more, became a practical reality. As of April 2011, the world record for successful deepwater drilling of a functional offshore oil well was 10,194 feet (3,107 meters) set by drillships off the coast of India. This is replaced, however, by a borehole, a completed well that was not yet fully tapped for oil or natural gas off the coast of the Russian island of Sakhalin in January 2011 that reached a depth of 40,502 feet (12,345 meters) . ).
Both deepwater oil and gas exploration have only become possible in the 21st century for several key reasons. Chief among these is the increase in prices of fossil fuels on the world market from 2007 to 2008, as well as technological advances that have made the practice more proven. Rising oil and gas prices are believed to be the direct cause of the increase in deepwater drilling oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, which went from three rigs in 1992 to a total of 36 operating rigs by the year 2009. A full one-third of all oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, representing 20% of all deepwater oil rigs in the world, are estimated to be drilling deeper than 5,000 feet (1,524 meters).
However, the technology for deep-sea drilling is not fully proven, as evidenced by one of the largest oil spills in world history. The Deepwater Horizon accident in April 2010 spilled approximately 205,800,000 gallons (779,037,745 liters) of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, or about half the amount of oil the United States purchases from foreign suppliers each day. The Deepwater Horizon drilling platform was licensed by the US government to drill to a depth of 18,000 feet (5,486 meters), but evidence exists that the company was actually drilling to a depth of 25,000 feet (7,620 meters) when it occurred the accident.
However, oil production continues to point to deepwater drilling, with the majority of ultra-deepwater rigs pumping at full capacity, while up to 50% of shallowwater rigs at major oil rigs oil exploration have been idle. The staggering increase in depth is put into perspective when you consider that drilling has taken place in the North Sea region between the UK and mainland Europe for decades. The shallow-water North Sea fixed-platform oil fields, which are considered fully exploited, are on average only drilled to a depth of 328 feet (100 meters), and deep-water drilling at the time they were in full production it was considered to be anything at a depth of 500 feet (152 meters) or more.
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