Talking It Over. What do geophysicists specialize in?

What do geophysicists specialize in? Why are they called in to help

explore for oil?

2. How is a gravimeter used to explore for oil?

3. How is a magnetometer used to explore for oil?

4. How is a seismograph used to explore for oil?

Stories Behind Words: Wildcat Wells

The oil explorer today is helped by many different teams of ex­perts. But even afterward he is not certain whether he has discovered a large enough quantity of oil to repay all the investments. Looking for new oil fields is called wildcatting, for in the early, less scientific years of the oil industry, many wells were drilled in lonely country

Exploring for Petroleum 43

where wild cats prowled around the rigs at nights. The wildcat wells are usually drilled without enough knowledge of the rock structure.

At present even with the help of science only one of every ten wildcat wells - as the first ones in a new field are called - is an oil producer. In an oil field already producing, one out of four or five wells strikes oil.

Talking It Over:

1. How do you understand the term "a wildcat well"?

2. Why do you think people often compared oil wells with wild cats?

3. Is there a practice of wildcatting at present?

4. Have you heard about wildcatting at the lectures delivered by the
professors at the University?

44 Chapter Two