HPHT Drilling is a Lot like a Marriage
HPHT drilling is becoming more and more common in the oil and natural gas industries. As wells are drilled deeper and deeper, both offshore and on land, this drilling method is becoming the method of choice for turning wells into profits. But it's not without a price. HPHT drilling is enormously expensive, highly risky, and fraught with dangers whose potential is still largely unknown. To use something fairly common as an analogy, it's fair to say that HPHT drilling is a lot like a marriage.
To begin with, HPHT is an acronym which means “high-pressure/high temperature.” It involves drilling in geological areas where the combination of pressure and temperature could potentially be explosive. Relating that to marriage, there is no other human relationship which provides the explosive potential that it does. Marriage is a high-pressure game. Each partner in the relationship must strive to meet the needs of the other and do so in a way that is morally acceptable and mutually beneficial. Anyone who's been married for any length of time knows that sometimes the pressure is too much and arguments explode.
Likewise, the emotional temperature of a marriage relationship also tends to be high. Wisdom says that the ones we love are the ones we hurt the most. That's certainly true due to the fact that we emotionally invest in our marriages to a degree that none of our other relationships enjoy. But with the high emotional investment also comes a high emotional temperature, which can flare if one partner offends the feelings of the other. Add that to the idea of high-pressure, when both combine it could have very serious repercussions. Keeping the pressure of a marriage at a minimum increases the likelihood of success.
Furthermore, HPHT drilling is similar marriage in that new wells are drilled in sometimes uncharted territories. When an oil company goes into uncharted territories, drilling is always a risk. Likewise, there is no perfect formula for marriage. Couples spend an entire lifetime investigating new and uncharted territories such as having children, facing financial difficulty, and enduring chronic illness. These uncharted territories have the potential of both great risk and great reward.
Finally, HPHT drilling resembles a marriage in the sense that the reward is great if the process is implemented correctly and safely. Deep sea oil reserves for example, can reap hundreds of billions of dollars in profit for company able to drill successfully. Couples who are able to safely navigate the waters of marriage and endure uncharted territory while keeping it altogether, stand to reap great rewards down the line. Those who never get there may spend a lifetime complaining about the costs. Those who make it understand that it was well worth the effort.