The fight among oil companies has many scrambling to find areas of the world that haven't been tapped for fuel. For some, this means working with more countries to gain access to on and offshore oil opportunities. But others are going in a different direction: deeper. An article in Bloomberg this week talks about the fight for control of the bottom of the ocean, with more companies trying to drill in areas two miles under the surface.
While this trend remains relatively new, drilling miles under the ocean may soon be the norm. More companies are working to create efficient ways to drill at these deep depths, and the University of Houston recently created a "subsea engineering" graduate program to further expedite these new developments.
Some of the benefits of drilling deeper down includes no weather disruptions—something that has hurt many other offshore oil rigs in the past. And with ROVs, these underwater robots can actually assist or monitor this equipment.
In all, spending on this new industry is expected to increase by 65 percent this year compared to last year, and Tore Halvorsen, senior vice president for subsea technologies at FMC Technologies, told the news source that within six years, drilling from the bottom of the ocean is a "vision that could become a reality."
Of course, as companies continue to find new ways and new places to drill, there are other necessities as well, namely, protection for the equipment and workers. As offshore oil managers race to increase their ocean bottom drilling, having the right offshore drilling insurance will continue to be needed to help this industry grow.