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When Bazookas Struck Oil Adapted from Information by the American Oil and Gas Historical Society Cement cas ng for so at ng and and guard ng aga nst co apse was deve oped n 1919, by Er e P. Ha burton s New Method O We Cement ng Company. But deep down the dr ed ho e, a new y-comp eted we s cemented cas ng formed a barr er n the way of gas and o product on. Numerous techno og es des gned to perforate we cas ng safe y were recorded by the U.S. Patent Off ce n the ear y 1900s. By the 1930s, “bu et” dev ces us ng project es - stee bu ets n most cases - had become the most popu ar method among o men. In the meant me, mproved dr ng methods were mak ng deeper we s poss b e. An August 1938, Popular Science art c e descr bed exp orat on and product on tech- no og es used for “the deepest ho e man has ever made n the crust of the earth.” The “deepest ho e” referred to a 15,000-foot we n Wasco, Ca forn a. Inventors were st scramb ng to make an effect ve we -punctur ng dev ce to over- come the cha enges of contro and “sand ng up” n the produc ng strata. The so ut on ended up comng from the batt ef e d. War veteran Henry Mohaupt had been n charge of a secret U.S. Army program to deve op an ant tank weapon. He had the dea to use a con ca y ho owed out exp o- s ve charge to d rect and focus detonat on energy, wh ch u t mate y ed to the rocket grenade used n the bazooka. On September 24, 1951, Mohaupt app ed for a U.S. patent for h s “Shaped ChargeAssemb y and Gun”, br ng ng Wor d War II ant tank tech- no ogy to the petro eum ndustry. “Th s nvent on re ates to mprovements n means for perforat ng cas ng n we s, and for perforat ng and fractur ng earth format ons around we bores,” Mohaupt ex- p a ned n h s patent app cat on. The dea worked. Focused exp os ve energy eas y cut through cas ng and strata. In years to come, We ex Jet Serv ces, Dupont, and others cont nued to exp ore nvent ons for perforat ng cas ng. Modern research and deve opment for the petro eum ndustry creates techno og es to safe y produce from deeper we s n t ghter ocat ons. Today s patents ref ect the demands of h gher downho e pressures, a ong w th other cha enges to meet the energy needs of a new generat on. Although not a “machine gun”, as noted in this 1938 Popular Science article, vital production technology involved explosive energy to cut through casing and strata for oil production . 33 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® APRIL 2016