Somewhere around the time that the industry stopped using cable-drop tools and started using rotary drilling tools, the habit formed to turn the drillstring to the right. And “turning to the right” has become a mantra for successful drilling ever since.

But so much has changed, and in the following pages we reveal some of the amazing strides that the drilling industry has made. This isn’t your father’s rope, soap and dope industry anymore. Rigs have been automated, and downhole sensors have become so sophisticated that the industry is playing catch-up trying to make sense of the ocean of data they provide. And operators are pushing the limits of temperature and pressure with the aid of new downhole tools that can withstand the harshest conditions.

The “easy oil” has been gone for a long time. But the industry still fi nds ways to push the boundaries.

Read each of the March E&P cover stories:

Automating complex tasks in unforgiving environments

Presalt drilling benefits from real-time data

Developing the HP/HT toolkit