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SILICON SILIC CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD Production Manager Greg Swain, B.Sc. (Hons.) Technical Editor John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.) Technical Staff Ross Tester Jim Rowe, B.A., B.Sc Nicholas Vinen Photography Ross Tester Reader Services Ann Morris Advertising Enquiries Glyn Smith Phone (02) 9939 3295 Mobile 0431 792 293 glyn<at>siliconchip.com.au Regular Contributors Brendan Akhurst David Maddison B.App.Sc. (Hons 1), PhD, Grad.Dip.Entr.Innov. Kevin Poulter Dave Thompson SILICON CHIP is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. ACN 003 205 490. ABN 49 003 205 490. All material is copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Printing: Offset Alpine, Lidcombe, NSW. Distribution: Network Distribution Company. Subscription rates: $105.00 per year in Australia. For overseas rates, see our website or the subscriptions page in this issue. Editorial office: Unit 1, 234 Harbord Rd, Brookvale, NSW 2100. Postal address: PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2097. Phone (02) 9939 3295. E-mail: silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au ISSN 1030-2662 Recommended & maximum price only. 2  Silicon Chip Publisher’s Letter Drilling for oil and our need for fossil fuels This month, we have a very interesting article on the topic of Directional Drilling by Dr David Maddison. In many ways, it is a mind-boggling concept, whereby an underground drill can be steered and directed to an oil or gas deposit which may be kilometres from the drill head and may be under rivers, cities or under the sea. Of particular interest are the ways in which the drill head can be steered and the ways in which signals to and from the drilling motor are fed to and from the surface. As you will see when you read the article, electronics may or may not play a part in this process and nor is the drilling head necessarily powered by electricity. How is that? Read the article. However, I will not be surprised if some people are affronted by the idea that we would give any space or publicity describing the technology which is commonly associated with “fracking” (hydraulic fracturing of oil-bearing shale). In fact, such people typically want to suppress any discussion which might be seen as favourable. Well, that’s just silly. In fact, using the technique of directional drilling, whether or not it is associated with fracking, is a much more environmentally acceptable way of extracting fossil fuel than any form of open-cut mining. Open-cut mining causes enormous damage to water tables and requires extremely costly remediation after the mine has reached the end of its life, or more likely, has become uneconomic. But it seems to me that open-cut mining for coal will continue to be used far into the future, regardless of whether we cease to have coal-fired power stations or not. For a start, much of the coal mined in Australia is exported and not used locally. Second, possibly half the coal mined all around the world is coking coal, used in steel-making. And no matter how much the greens may want to stop coal mining, there is no other way to make steel. In fact, it often seems to me that a large part of the population does not have any understanding of the carbon reduction process whereby iron ore is turned into steel, usually by way of conventional blast furnaces and later refinement involving the addition of nickel, tungsten etc. We must continue to make steel. After all, even those “wonderful” sources of socalled “renewable energy”, namely wind turbines and their massive towers, require vast quantities of steel, not to mention concrete which also requires coal for its manufacture. And we must continue to use oil; in huge quantities. So let’s look in favour on directional drilling techniques. They allow us to access oil and gas reserves in the most economical and least environmentally damaging way. The technique has also effectively quashed the doom-sayers’ concept of “peak oil”, whereby we were supposed to start running out of oil by 1970, 1980 or 1994 or whenever the prediction was shifted to in the face of mounting evidence against it. Of course, such doom-sayers looked forward to the eventuation of “peak oil” as finally preventing man from burning such fossil fuels. They wanted to stop it. Let’s face it. Everyone on the planet utterly depends on fossil fuels for every aspect of our welfare, whether it is clean water, safe sewage disposal, clean and plentiful food, warm and safe housing, modern medicine, all motorised forms of transport, communications and so on. To deny that fact is utterly stupid. In fact, only a small portion of the worlds’ population would even exist today, were it not for our widespread use of fossil fuels. Leo Simpson siliconchip.com.au