This technology was first developed in the 1940s. And after decades of innovation, it came into popular use by 2005. Today, fracking is widespread in the United States. And the possibility of cheaper and cleaner energy from shale oil and tight sand has prompted interest from governments around the world as well. However, the large-scale deployment of fracking technology faces significant hurdles outside of the U.S. U.S. companies have spent many years and millions of dollars developing fracking technologies to tap the shales and tight-sand reservoirs. This expertise and experience is not readily transferrable to other areas of the world… Technical bottlenecks, lack of adequate water supply, and poor infrastructure all hinder others’ efforts to duplicate the success of U.S. companies. Plus, drilling shale and tight-sand wells outside of the United States is expensive since they don’t already have our advanced technology. With the U.S.’ technological advantage, that is not likely to change in the future. It will take years for the rest of the world to catch up to U.S. innovation. By that time, the U.S. will have developed the next generation of fracking. Coming Innovation in Oil & Gas Technology The United States is the world leader in technological innovation for the oil and gas industry. Let’s take a quick look at a few technologies that are likely to change the industry in the coming years…
Robots and Automated Rigs
Today, rigs have automated arms that lift pieces of pipe and screw them together. This is the first step in the coming use of robotics on drilling rigs. In the future, robots will replace roughnecks. Robots will become a part of a system that communicates and performs tasks automatically
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