In the 1850’s, the development of new types of machinery that were required to produce the needed oil for lubrication marked the beginning of the oil industry. The oil business itself began in 1859 when Edwin L. Drake, a career railroad conductor, devised a way to build a practical oil well. Just a couple years later, in August of 1861, the McClintock 1 oil well started producing in Titusville, PA. Though it is not more than a century and a half old, it is still doing so today. Much of its success is derived from the fact that oil production companies use advanced technologies that allow drills and pumps to work efficiently for long periods of time.

A single 42-gallon barrel of oil creates just 19.4 gallons of gasoline. Though fuel for cars isn’t the only oil product people depend on for their every day life, it is one of the major reasons that demand for oil is so high. As a result, oil field services companies are constantly facing the challenge of finding ways to get more oil out of the ground easily and efficiently. Finding oil field solutions for common problems, including overcoming issues that slow productivity, is vital for oil companies who want to make sure that they provide the public with all of the fuel it depends on.

Before ever drilling or installing pumps, oil field services companies often have to simply find where the oil is. Though this might seem easy at the surface, the reality is that finding oil and knowing exactly where to drill presents lots of challenges. Drilling for oil is not an exact science, even though there is plenty of science and technology that goes into finding it. Because of that, oil field specialists need to be able to both understand the data that they have and find ways to use it so production companies can mine.

Though there are measures being taken, like investing in the research for alternative energies, to reduce dependence on oil, that impact has been minimal so far. In fact, in the time it takes to read this sentence, about 8,000 barrels of oil will have been consumed in the world. This means that, though the role of oil field services companies might be reduced or vastly different in the future, finding and extracting oil, just like in the 1800’s, remains their priority. Learn more about this topic here.