Shaking hands with the devil: the deepest hole ever drilled

[asphaltjunkie]

14 replies, and not one comment about finally bottoming out someone's mother's vagina...

Either the board has matured, or everyone's gone soft.

[Craizie]

Is this like space docking?

[Forever_frost]

14 replies, and not one comment about finally bottoming out someone's mother's vagina...

Either the board has matured, or everyone's gone soft.

Because:

A) This isn't even half way to bottoming out in your momma
B) Your momma didn't think I was soft when I was giving it to her.

[svauto-erotic855]

Drilling mud pressure/composition and running casing down the hole.

As a side note: fuck tripping out that much pipe. That had to suck.

I crunched some numbers and came up with a minimum pressure of a little over 17,000psi at the bottom of the hole. How can you put that much counter pressure down the hole from nearly 8 miles away?

[racrguy]

I crunched some numbers and came up with a minimum pressure of a little over 17,000psi at the bottom of the hole. How can you put that much counter pressure down the hole from nearly 8 miles away?

What's the pressure requirement at, say, 12000 deep?

[svauto-erotic855]

^^^
A little over 5300psi IF I have this figured out correctly.

[matts5.0]

What's the pressure requirement at, say, 12000 deep?

Around 6kish

[racrguy]

^^^
A little over 5300psi IF I have this figured out correctly.

Around 6kish

Then there must be a lower requirement of pressure. At around 12k vertical we were only using around 1k-1200 psi of pressure on the pumps. I don't know what the actual pressure is down that deep if it was an open air situation, but we typically didn't have any issues with the formation collapsing on the pipe during a trip in/out.

[svauto-erotic855]

I have never worked on a drill rig or even though about it until now. Once I started crunching the numbers in my head and saw billion dollar price tags attached to what I think it would take to drill a deep hole I have a new found respect for the entire industry.

At some point you are going to be limited by the tensile strength of the material used to make the drill string aren't you? When you pull the string up are you lifting the full weight of the entire drill string?

[mstng86]

And it is veering we left some trash down there.

[racrguy]

I have never worked on a drill rig or even though about it until now. Once I started crunching the numbers in my head and saw billion dollar price tags attached to what I think it would take to drill a deep hole I have a new found respect for the entire industry.

It costs millions to drill a well. I don't know what the actual number is, but I heard rumors that our day rate was 25k per day charged to the lease holder.

At some point you are going to be limited by the tensile strength of the material used to make the drill string aren't you? When you pull the string up are you lifting the full weight of the entire drill string?

Yes, but that drill pipe is pretty strong stuff, you've got to have something go pretty bad to twist one off. I wonder if the Russians even tried to fish it out. Hook weight on a 12k vertical was north of 250k plus anywhere between 20-40k of weight on the bit while drilling.

[svauto-erotic855]

^^^

My billion dollar figure isn't just for drilling the hole and I should have said 10s of billions. It is for creating the tech to do it in the first place.

[racrguy]

^^^

My billion dollar figure isn't just for drilling the hole and I should have said 10s of billions. It is for creating the tech to do it in the first place.

I'd be willing to bet it's a good bit steeper than 10's of billions.

[svauto-erotic855]

You are probably right. I have the advantage of 20/20 hindsight and know just enough about drilling to save a huge pile of cash if I was put into charge of developing the techniques used for drilling a deep well. Sounds like a fun project.

[86silverbullett]

As a side note: fuck tripping out that much pipe. That had to suck.

My first thought reading all that..lol