Deepest and longest well

The deepest well is the Kola Superdeep Borehole (12 262 meters).
The deepest oil well is 10 683 meters and was drilled in the Tiber Oil Field by the Deepwater Horizon (Source).

The longest well (Measured Depth) is 12 345 meters (Sakhalin-I Project).

Oil rig news report from 1970

News report on the Sea Quest oil rig explaining how offshore drilling works. Originally published in the Guardian on 20 October 1970. The rig was built in 1970 after BP found a big oilfield 110 miles east of Aberdeen


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What Is A Shale Gas Play?

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The term “play” is used in the oil and gas industry to refer to a geographic area which has been targeted for exploration due to favorable geoseismic survey results, well logs or production results from a new or “wildcat well” in the area. An area comes into play when it is generally recognized that there is an economic quantity of oil or gas to be found. Oil and gas companies will send out professional “land men”  who research property records at the local courthouses and after having located landowners who own the mineral rights in the play area, will offer them an oil and gas lease deal.  Competition for acreage usually increases based on how hot the play is in terms of production from discovery wells in the area. The more oil and  gas there is to be had, the higher the lease payments per acre are. tbc...

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