How deep into the ground do we have to go to tap the resources we need to keep the lights on? How deep into the ground are we able to go? These are the sort of questions that spur invention and lead to groundbreaking discoveries. The first oil well drilled in Texas in 1866 was a little over 100 feet deep: the No 1 Isaac C. Skillern struck oil at a depth that, from today’s perspective, is ridiculously shallow. Ten years ago, the latest data from the Energy Information Administration shows, the average depth of U.S. exploration oil wells was almost 7,800 feet. It’s safe to assume that over these past ten years, the average well depth has only increased from there. Yet the world’s deepest oil well is not in the United States. It’s in Russia, off Sakhalin Island and it extends 15 km or 49,000 feet into […]