21.   It also makes it easier to get the financing to drill wells and to try new technologies that can boost production.

22.   Investors fear the lower crude prices will lead companies to pull back on spending for the products and services needed to drill wells, reducing profits.

23.   It can be used to both drill wells and bring oil and natural gas to the surface.

24.   It is the rhetoric of someone whose underlying desire is to drill unnecessary wells on land that should be guarded, not exploited.

25.   It often takes two years from the time an offshore well is first drilled for it to begin producing oil.

26.   Just two exploration wells have been drilled so far, and only the results of the first well have been released.

27.   Last weekend engineers began to drill wells around the outside of the bathtub wall to monitor water levels and ground movements in the coming months of excavation.

28.   Ms. Rowe also said that seven new test wells were being drilled to insure that no seepage from the tank would go undetected.

29.   Observation wells were also drilled to help monitor any movement of radioactivity through underground waters.

30.   Particularly hard-hit today were companies that drill offshore wells.