An educational documentary from 1956’s Science in Action series titled Drilling for Oil shows that many of the techniques used today in exploring and drilling for oil and gas are still very comparable to the techniques used in the 1950’s.
The show focuses on a discussion between the series’ host and a guest expert in the oil and gas industry. The expert demonstrated enhanced oil recovery using water and gas injection (at the video’s 13:15 mark) and horizontal drilling to target oil pools relatively close to land but ultimately trapped offshore (at the video’s 19:30 mark}. The operation was done by using a wedge to turn the drill bit to a horizontal orientation.
Watch the fascinating documentary courtesy Science in Action: