NARRATOR: Drilling
deeper than ever
needed a drill that
was longer than ever.
It was pieced together
in massive sections--
that's where the
130-foot derrick came in.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It has a big winch
called a top drive,
to raise and lower giant lengths
of drill pipe into position.
And turn the drill head
thousands of feet below.
With our drill head
held in position,
we can start to attach
the first length of pipe.
 So we've got the
guy way at the top
and we're sending the
top drive up to him.
He's going to connect up to
the top of a 90-foot section.
We move that into place.
And ready connect it right
down here at the well.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
NARRATOR: Just like
the Brent Delta,
the winch's top drive is
controlled by the operator
in the control room.
He lowers the pipe
into position.
 So now we're just going to
tighten this thing up by hand.
NARRATOR: Sometimes
I feel like I'm going
around and around in circles.
And that's as tight
as I can manage.
Next, it's over to
special hydraulic grips,
called rig tongs.
I manage to exert around
200 pounds of torque
to turn the pipe, but these
things have a bit more muscle.
 Now just to put
into perspective--
these rig tongs have 65,000
foot pounds of torque.
NARRATOR: That's strong
enough to tear a car in half.
The rig tongs clamp onto
each section of drill pipe,
then twist them together
until they're locked tight.
This is all heavy work, which
covered workers in wet mud.
One mistake could cost
a finger or worse.
Even so, the drill teams
worked at high speed,
like a well-oiled machine.
I can't imagine
matching their pace.
I'm only just ready for
my second piece of pipe.
 We're going to grab another
90 foot section, set it on top,
and we're ready to keep
going down and down and down.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
You're going to keep
doing that cycle
and make this as
deep as you want.
You can see behind
me, we literally
have thousands of feet
of pipe just right here.
NARRATOR: Once the
chain of linked pipes
hit the seabed 500 feet
below, Brent Delta workers
would fire up the drill.
 When we're down into the rock,
this thing will spin about 150
RPM, depending on what
we're drilling through.
And we can do either 2 feet
an hour or 200 feet an hour,
depending on the type of rock.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
NARRATOR: Oil is held
under enormous pressure
within porous rock.
By drilling a hole, you
release that pressure,
and the oil rushes
into the borehole.
External casing pipes
around the drill bit
carry the oil all the
way up to the surface.
And that's how to unlock
black gold from bedrock
beneath the ocean floor.
