This is the current state of the global economy and the sum of our technological achievements: we still depend heavily on oil. The most conspicuous need for oil is as a fuel source for vehicles and industrial processes, and a very large percentage of all oil production is dedicated to refinement into fuels. But oil is also used to generate plastics, pharmaceutical products and a host of other products. These products have become important to all sectors of the economy – industry, commerce and consumer products contexts. We know that eventually we’ll have to find an alternate source, and most people agree that the sooner we find an alternative, the better off we’ll be. In the meantime, as alternative technologies and fuel sources are explored, we can make more efficient use of oil.

One of the ways of increasing the efficiency of our use of oil is to improve the methods by which it is extracted. If we can improve these methods, perhaps during the extraction phase less material will be lost. After all, if many small inefficiencies can be eliminated across the entire industry, a large total savings can be accrued.

Ultrasonic cleaning has been demonstrated to show some promise as far as such efforts are concerned. In a study conducted at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1998, the feasibility of using ultrasonic cleaning to repair oil wellbores was tested and yielded favorable results. Specifically, damage caused by mud particle invasion during the drilling process can degrade the surface of the wellbore, which is, simply, the hole drilled into the ground where the oil comes from. The study demonstrated that ultrasonic cleaning can be used to dislodge particles that cause problems during the oil extraction process. The implication of these findings is that, instead of abandoning wellbores that cease to perform well after time, an ultrasonic cleaning mechanism can be used to rehabilitate the well. This could reduce waste and the costs of new drilling.