"Journey to the Centre of the Earth" and HPHT Drilling
HPHT drilling is a term usually only familiar to those either in the gas, oil and coal industries or those industries that directly support (or are supported by) the mining of fossil fuels, plus geologists and seismologists. HPHT (or High Pressure, High Temperature) drilling is exactly what it says, the drilling into an area of high temperature or high geo-pressure. So how does this fit in with that epic movie “Journey to the Centre of the Earth”?
Well, whilst there’s not a lot to be grateful for in the 2008 re-make of the 1959 James Mason classic, the remake did bring the attention of a whole new generation to the perils to be encountered when drilling below the surface of our world. Notwithstanding the very dramatic and CGI-enhanced hazards encountered by Brendan Fraser’s dismal crew, there was a significant echo of the very real dangers faced by very real engineers who, thankfully with more than Brendan’s level of clothing and technology for protection, drill into our earth in pursuit of the fossil fuels that industry and domestic customers alike take totally for granted.
At a basic level, any area where there is a high temperature (in the case of HPHT, then it is more than 300 degrees Fahrenheit) at the bottom of the drilled shaft along with a high level of pore pressure (this is easy to understand, as the label ‘pore pressure’ gives you the apt analogy of a spot: you will be very familiar with the dramatic impact that a puncture to the membrane can have) then the consequences of tapping into such temperature and pressure can be disastrous if not fully analysed and prepared for prior to drilling. This has been recently and disastrously demonstrated in the Gulf of Mexico disaster, where drilling crews lost their lives whilst trying to bring mankind the fuel that it craves just to function.
If you can bear to watch the movie, please do. It doesn’t rate very highly with most movie goers (obvious why in the first fifteen minutes actually) but if you can bear with it, it should at least give you the vaguest, fictional, Hollywood portrayal of some very real seismic risks to our engineering heroes. Whilst the impact of the Gulf of Mexico disaster will not be quickly forgotten in environmental circles, with the on-going devastation still very evident in the area, even without the subsequent long-term impact on the eco-system that is still to come, it would be easy to forget those individuals who died in the disaster. Any and all funding into developing HPHT drilling technology should be facilitated by the relevant world industry budget holders, so that such disasters can never strike the world’s engineer heroes again.