Many complex tools are designed for oil exploration.
Oil and gas industries around the globe are actively exploring for oil, natural gas and hydrocarbon deposits beneath the surface of the earth. Depending on where the oil is located, or what terrain the company is exploring, many tools are used for oil exploration. Tools vary among those that are used for exploration on frozen land, at sea or at other locations.
Pilot Drill Control Tools
When exploring for oil, drilling depths can exceed 6 miles into the earth's surface. At these depths, the drill bit is often removed from the hole, and complex instruments inserted into the drilled shaft that collect data and feed it back to the drilling platform. AC induction motors, casing scrapers, and harmonic stabilizers are all used on the end of the drill string to collect data, or stabilize the drilling process. These tools are often called pilot drill control, or PDC tools.
Magnetic Tools
Oil bearing rock is rarely magnetic, and non-oil bearing rock is often highly magnetic. Therefore oil exploration is performed using tools that measure magnetic fields. Two different magnetic tools are used to measure the magnetic field, and the field differences of rock formations under the earth's crust. Two frequently used tools are the field balance and airborne magnetometer. These tools can measure any slight difference in magnetism in specific rock formations, and in the air just above the ground over large areas respectively. The fluctuations in the magnetic fields indicate when oil is present in the rock substrates.
Radar Wave Generators
Radars utilize ultra high frequency waves that penetrate the ground and identify oil deposits. The radar waves bounce back to the radar generator as they travel though the ground. The radar waves reflect differently when they bounce off solid rock as compared to when they impact an oil reserve under the ground. Depth and density of the materials from which they reflect are identified by the characteristics of the wave that returns to the radarscope. The drawbacks of radar generators is the high amount of power required to power the radar waves.
Sonar Wave Generators
Lower frequency sound waves, or sonar waves, are also used to detect hidden oil fields within a surrounding dense mineral substrate. Sonar for oil exploration acts like that on a submarine. The sonar waves bounce back from solid surfaces, and become distorted if they bounce back through an underground oil field. Sound generators can produce sonar waves at different frequencies in order to effectively explore different substrates.
Tags: bounce back, radar waves, sonar waves, bearing rock, collect data
