This is the only visual you ever need for thinking about how horizontal drilling differs from conventional drilling in the oil and gas industry: a jelly doughnut (conventional) vs. tiramisu (horizontal).
Economics professor Mark Perry tweeted this graphic out Wednesday:
For those of you that can't read the small print, here's what it says:
Drilling into conventional sources is like sticking a straw in a jelly donut - the petroleum is trapped in a single formation that just flows out under pressure. Drilling into unconventional sources like oil and gas shale is quite different, more like tiramisu - the petroleum is in many layers that have to be individually tapped using horizontal drilling and fracking methods to open up the rock. Saudi Arabia has a bunch of reall ybig jelly donuts. The United States has lots of tiramisu, plus some pretty good jelly donuts as well. Source: Jim Scherrer
Yep.
