The well paths of all directional wells need to be and are very well documented and also reported to the relevant authorities in every jurisdiction globally. There are a number of reasons for this, but primary amongst them is that so lease holders know that adjacent lease holders are not drilling into their resources.
30,000ft laterals (as horizontal sections are known) are relatively common around the world. If I recall correctly the longest and most challenging are being drilled by XOM on Sakhalin Island where they have a custom built land rig with equipment that is normally deployed on the biggest deep water floating rigs in use to e able to handle the drilling loads (torque primarily), hoisting loads (to get the casing stings run safely) and hole cleaning hydraulics requirements.
There are probably less than 10 land rigs currently in Australia capable of drilling a 30,000ft lateral. More likely less than 5, but I haven't kept tabs on it for a couple of years.
Not sure where you got your gulf war info from. I was there when it happened (the war) and Saddam simply wanted the Kuwaiti's oil and access to the Arabian Gulf.
LKO Price at posting:
0.1¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
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