Drill Pipe

Drill pipe is an industrial tubular used to drill into the ground. There are three major industries that use drill pipe. The most common application of drill pipe is in the oil and gas industry. Another industry that uses drill pipe is the underground construction industry, or more specifically, the Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) industry. And finally, the water well drilling industry also uses drill pipe. Drill pipe accounts for over half of all product sales for E&M Specialty Co., who proudly serves all three of these major industries.

In 1987, E&M Specialty Co. began as a drill pipe supplier to the oil and gas drilling contractors. The oil and gas industry is the most common domain for drill pipe. It is normally made in 31ft lengths. These lengths are screwed together one by one and collectively are known as the drill string. Also parts of the drill string are drill collars and heavy-weight drill pipe. At the bottom of the drill string is the drill bit, which does the actual boring into the earth. Initially all oilfield drill pipe is drilled into the ground vertically by the drilling rig. Depending on the proposed location and orientation of the oil well, once the drill pipe is vertically drilled into the ground, the direction of the drilling is sometimes changed to horizontal. In comparison to other industries that use drill pipe, oilfield drill pipe is made to withstand the most demanding working conditions. This is mainly due to the extreme depths with which it is used and the extreme conditions of the earth at those depths. For example some drill string lengths are in excess of 30,000ft.

Another industry that uses drill pipe is the underground construction industry, or more specifically, the Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) industry. E&M Specialty began supplying drill pipe to the HDD industry in the mid 1990’s. This industry utilizes drill pipe to bore tunnels underneath waterways, major roadways, and generally any place where trenching is not acceptable. The resulting bore is used for various utilities including, fiber optic, water, electricity, and oil and gas pipelines. HDD drilling rigs are very different from oilfield drilling rigs in that they are almost completely horizontal or laying flat. Most of the larger HDD rigs use exactly the same 31ft. drill pipe that the oilfield uses.

The water well drilling industry uses drill pipe also. Water wells are significantly shallower than oil wells, so therefore the drill pipe and drilling rigs are allowed to be less heavy duty. E&M Specialty has served the water well drilling industry since the late 1980’s.