Friendly policy from Republicans, including President Donald Trump’s two administrations, has also allowed oil drilling to expand rapidly across the U.S.

Many Americans might be familiar with the image of a pumping jack, a steel-and-iron structure recognizable by a rocking motion that mimics a horse or donkey nodding its head. 

While this apparatus is used across the country to push crude to the surface, oil drillers rely heavily on larger, more complex processes and equipment to drill deeper into the ground and tap more oil reserves. 

Some are even embracing artificial intelligence to maximize production while using fewer wells and drilling materials. 

It’s a complicated process, supported by round-the-clock crews, millions of gallons of water, thousands of feet of steel pipe, and hundreds of employees both on- and off-site.

The Washington Examiner recently traveled to the Denver-Julesburg oil basin in Colorado, the fourth-largest crude-producing state in the U.S., to take a closer look at what goes into the process of drilling for oil and natural gas, and how oil majors such as Chevron have been utilizing AI and other techniques to produce more with less. 

Starting the well 

Just about an hour north of Denver in Weld County, Colorado, Chevron operates thousands of wells. It has more than 4,000 wells in operation across the entire DJ basin, producing roughly 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

It is a multi-month process to get these wells to a point where they can begin pumping oil and gas to the surface, which begins with drilling a hole in the ground. It’s not as simple as it sounds. 

It involves a drilling rig that stretches several stories high and can send a drill bit, piping, and steel casing more than 17,000 feet underground. 

The first step involves drilling an initial surface hole that reaches the bottom of a freshwater aquifer. Crews then insert steel surface casing into the hold to create a barrier between the aquifer and drilling materials to avoid contaminating the water. 

A second, skinnier, steel pipe will be inserted into the hole before being cemented in place to further protect from contamination. 

The drilling process can then continue, with crews drilling several thousand feet below the surface, hitting as deep as a mile and a half. It doesn’t stop there. 

Rather than drilling one hole straight into the ground, oil producers, including Chevron, are now drilling horizontally, sending their drill bit roughly 2 miles laterally and either stopping there or horseshoeing back toward the initial hole. 

Once they hit the desired distance, crews will extract the drill pipe and insert more steel casing into the hole, which is also cemented in place. 

Techniques such as horizontal drilling allow Chevron to access more reserves with fewer wells, meaning it can cut costs by reducing the number of drilling rigs needed to start these wells. 

There are currently nine rigs operating in the DJ Basin as of this spring, two of which are operated by Chevron. While this is far fewer than the 20-plus rigs operating in the region just four years ago, production has risen by tens of thousands of barrels of oil equivalent per day. 

“You might see rig count go down,” Bobby Hulet, Chevron’s director of the Colorado region, told the Washington Examiner. “But that doesn’t mean that we’re trying to achieve less. We’re achieving what we want to achieve, but with fewer wells.”  

Kim McHugh, vice president of Chevron’s shale and tight base business, told the Washington Examiner that technological advancements in AI and electrification have also enabled Chevron to accelerate its initial drilling. 

“So now you become more efficient on top of the tools that we use with the lateral feet,” McHugh said. “These horizontals have gotten longer, so you don’t need as many wells to produce the same amount, because you can increase this lateral footage.” 

She also explained that Chevron’s rigs are equipped to “walk” around a well pad, meaning they can move from well to well without having to disassemble and reassemble the rig. 

“You can walk, and within hours, now you’re on the next well,” McHugh said. 

Hydraulic Fracturing 

Now that the well is open, a second crew can come in and begin a process called hydraulic fracturing, which unleashes the oil and gas deep underground. 

Better known simply as fracking, this process has been used across the U.S. for decades, as early as the 1940s and 1950s. It was later widely adopted during the early 2000s, helping the U.S. become the leading producer of oil and natural gas. 

The process relies on high pressure from a drill and perforating gun system to create cracks in rock layers thousands of feet underground. 

Using a system of wirelines, the perforating gun is lowered deep into the well, loaded with explosive charges to create fissures in the rock.  

Once these cracks are formed, millions of gallons of water, sand, and other chemicals are pumped into the well. The sand will keep the cracks open while the chemical-water mixture pushes the oil and natural gas to flow to the surface. Chevron alone uses roughly 25 Olympic swimming pools’ worth of water and up to 8 million pounds of sand for each well it completes. 

The entire fracking process is risky, as it involves intense pressure that can pose a threat to workers, contractors, and other individuals on site. 

Chevron and its partners have taken steps to reduce these risks by embracing advanced technologies, including AI, to increase automation in the fracking process.

Chevron and Halliburton announced last year that they jointly developed an “intelligent” fracturing process that provides human workers with real-time feedback on the amount of pressure involved, where cracks are forming, and whether any stages need to be slowed or halted. 

This increased use of automation also allows employees to remotely open and close the wells they are pumping the sand, water, and chemical solution into.

“Gone are the days of opening and closing a well, walking up to it,” said Kelly Lewis, the field superintendent of the Rockies. 

Not only does this reduce the risk of human injury, but it also cuts the amount of time it takes to open a well, allowing crews to increase the number of wells fracked each year. This year, Chevron’s crews are planning to frack roughly 230 wells. 

Separating the product 

Chevron will spend about a month and a half fracking over a dozen wells before it is ready to move into production. 

Once fracking is completed, the remaining water-chemical mixture is recovered and recycled for future use. 

Crews will then install a series of valves at the top of the well, known as a “Christmas tree.” These valves help regulate the flow of oil, gas, and water out of the well as it heads to a production facility, where the products are separated for sale. 

Each production site can handle a wide variety of wells, from seven to more than 70. 

Here, the oil, gas, and water mixtures go through a series of heat- and pressure-based treatments to separate the components. This is to ensure customers receive pure oil, which contains less than 1% water.

Traditionally, at these facilities, oil and natural gas will be stored in separate tanks before being sold on the market or directly to customers. Chevron, however, has taken a more unconventional approach by sending the product directly to midstream producers via pipelines, removing all storage tanks.

Not only do these tankless facilities have a smaller footprint than those used in the past, but they have also resulted in about 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production facilities by removing tanker trucks from the road and reducing flaring. Flaring is the controlled burning of natural gas to relieve high pressure or manage excess gas that is not economical to sell to the market.

“I mean, pride-wise, these guys, our engineering team, it’s amazing what they did,” Rob Ingino, production supervisor in the Colorado region, told the Washington Examiner. “It’s industry-leading. When I say industry, I don’t mean Colorado, I mean worldwide.” 

Closing the wells 

Once it’s producing oil, one of these wells will last as long as it remains economical for a company like Chevron. This typically translates to anywhere from 20 to 40 years, and sometimes even longer. 

When these wells are abandoned, states like Colorado require operators to perform a process known as “plug and abandon.” This essentially means leaving the land in a condition such that one could not tell that an oil well was ever there. 

Jack Shepherd, co-owner of Mountain States Oilfield Services, who works with the federal government to plug orphan wells, explained that the process involves pumping out remaining oil and gas and removing any remaining tubing. 

Next, crews will pump cement, allowing it to circulate through the well, then place a plug to fill the well in stages. Once the well is filled, crews will cut off casing piping roughly 5 feet below the surface before closing the well entirely. 

To make full use of the land, Chevron has worked alongside towns, neighborhoods, and landowners to develop spaces for nearby residents. 

STRAINED BY GAS PRICES, VOTERS IN RED PART OF COLORADO BLAME TRUMP, INDUSTRY, OR IRAN

“We’ve had situations where one area — and I loved this — they wanted a dog park, so we converted that into a dog park,” McHugh said.

“So, we want to be a partner with them and make sure that [we’re] not just doing it exactly back to [what it was], but is there something particular that would make it better for them and that sustainable land usage,” she said.