When drilling like 12 km deep into the ground, how is it possible that a 12 km long pipe (drill string) is able to turn the drill bit AND be pushed down enough to drill??

Question

A 12 km long pipe seems like a ridiculous length for any of that to be possible. Isn’t it like trying to drill a hole with a 258 ft long piece of spaghetti?

In: 1335

Answer 1

Jump up and you fall down. The drillstring is in a controlled fall, and does not need pushing. If you hold a wet spagetti firm in one end and continuously twist/rotate the other, at one point it is twisted enough such that the firm end will start to rotate too. Only ~100meter of the drill string is in compression regardless of well length, and the rest is in tension, meaning its just hanging there and spinning around. If you stand on the ground and start to pull yourself up, you can have tension in your arms and compression in your feet at the same time (assuming your feet still touch the ground).