In typical existing oil and gas fields, a condition known as "water coning" occurs around the perforations in the production casing in the vertical wells. As a well cones water, the oil/water or gas/water ratio decreases, whereby the well ultimately becomes uneconomic. After years of production, the well will be shut-in if it is producing oil or gas at an uneconomic rate. Reentry Horizontal Drilling involves reentering a "depleted" vertical well and drilling a 90-degree arc above the previously water-coned area. The electronically guided drill bit re-enters the horizontal oil or gas formation from above the water and drills beyond the water-coned area into the remaining potentially productive oil or gas formation. As a result, a previously uneconomic vertical well becomes a productive horizontal well. Such horizontal drilling may extend several thousand feet beyond the vertical well's original drainage pattern, thereby significantly increasing the drainage area of the new horizontal well.

Additionally, there are very profitable applications for Reentry Horizontal Drilling emerging in the oil and gas business. These include horizontally drilling multiple laterals in low permeability oil and gas reservoirs, fractured reservoirs with discontinuous porosity, enhanced waterflood patterns, oil and gas source rock and shales and directional drilling. These new types of low cost horizontal drilling technologies became feasible when three related technologies were developed. These include the development of slimhole, steerable motors, wire-line and Gamma Ray Tools for electronically guided horizontal drilling and 3-D Seismic Technology.

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