Wellbore

A wellbore is any hole drilled for the purpose of exploration or extraction of natural resources such as water, gas or oil where a well may be produced and a resource extracted for a protracted period.

It is often used interchangeably with drill hole or borehole, though typically a "borehole" is referred to in ore mining, exploratory drilling, pilot holes for installing piers or underground utilities, or any other of a number of single use hole drilling. Wellbores, drilled using water, are part of the process of "fracking", or Hydraulic Fracturing, which has become a more common drilling method by oil and gas companies in the United States in the late 2000s.

See also

• Drilling rig
• Hydrocarbon exploration
• Oil and gas law in the United States
• Wildcatter
• Hubbert peak theory