Nodding Donkeys Fail as Long Shale Wells Make Pumping Oil Harder
- Costly disruptions threaten rising flow of crude from Americas
- Century-old pump technology overwhelmed by difficulty of wells
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Imagine trying to slurp a thick chocolate shake through a J-shaped straw four miles long. That’s the kind of cheek-puckering test the American shale industry must overcome to prolong a record boom in oil output.
For almost a decade, drillers have been using new techniques to tap vast petroleum reserves scattered within deep, porous rock layers in places like west Texas, Pennsylvania and southern Canada. By digging extra-long wells that went down and then sideways at different angles, engineers were able to capture a lot more crude than from a vertical hole.