That allows the gas to flow back up the pipe.

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Think about what this advancement has meant just in terms of access to the resources: When drilling into a hydrocarbon bearing formation 100 feet thick, vertical drilling would allow an operator to contact 100 feet of rock, which would limit your potential recovery to whatever oil or gas would flow into that length of pipe.

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Power is equal to the flow of water out of the pipe, which depends on both variables.

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In its update yesterday, McMoran says it is injecting a barite solvent to clean out the perforations, or holes in the drill pipe, through which the gas will flow.

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At 8:20 p.m. on the day of the explosion the pressure data suggest there was a constant flow of sea water being pumped into the drill pipe that was displacing the heavier mud system which was the primary pressure control for the well.

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Inside the riser pipe is a space about half a meter in diameter, large enough to hold the spinning drill pipe and bit and to allow the return flow of drilling fluid.

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Such carriers have the opportunity to be more than just a bit of pipe -- to do more than simply facilitate the flow of ones and zeros.

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The mermaid's intricate tresses, crowned with a garland of flowers, flow back to meet up with her finely wrought fish tail and the pipe's amber stem.

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The pipe companies instead are benefiting from declining capital needs, improving free cash flow, attractive return of capital.

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