Show oil drillers drillars Dr illers are aided by science drilling for oil or natural gas fc 16 expensive even fabulous running as much as a thousand dollars a day and the well may turn out to be a dry bole hole in 1945 the cost was per day in 1951 it cost per day in 1945 a foot rotary rig rigi cost nearly while in 1951 the cost had risen to nearly the average wildcat costs about and a deep exploration well may cost as much as 1 million but use of newly developed scientific methods have prevented c costs from being much higher ultrasonic sound beams and hl high 9 b po potential electric current are being u ird ed to test for pay sand high powered pumps force a viscous and sand bearing fluid into tight underground der ground formations and lite li rIly prop up the tiny crevices so that the oil can escape derricks on barges or platforms now bring in wells miles offshore off shore in waters up to 50 feet keet deep la in the laboratories models of gas a s drive and water reservoirs fa oil i I 1 reservoirs under pressure from gas or water enable engineers to forecast the behavior of an actual reservoir for years to come so the oilmen will know bow how much gas and oil can be drawn off in a given time without reducing pressure below the point at which wells cease to flow techniques of pumping water or gas back into a reservoir have also been worked out with the result re sult that new reservoirs may be drained of their oil more thoroughly and old fields may be re juvena ted the atomic energy commission reports that the governments bagi capital investment in atomic plant facilities I 1 a cili ties has reached an estimated 57 billion |