For the record, venerable Boulder Field hosted 200 drill rigs in its day, most of them dry holes, according to Silverman's research.

Laband, et al (2002) and Laband and Tollison (2003) refer to papers with no subsequent citations (dry holes) as "useless papers" (p.

It also means less street work disruption for the rest of us, with no more dry holes where a contractor digs a hole but finds nothing."

The survey totals 500 nautical miles and will extend into the licence areas to tie dry holes and selected prospects.

In 2008, the trust has drilled 35.9 net wells with a 92% success ratio, yielding 17.9 net oil wells, 14.5 net natural gas wells, a 0.5 water injection well and 3.0 net dry holes.

Delia and Lucy had each one of her own with secret holes in its trunk: wet, mysterious holes where black rainwater collected, and dry holes where conkers were hoarded.

Other drivers which could increase North America's short- and long-term construction activity is the high level of natural gas and oil wells and dry holes being drilled.

"With current technology, we've been able to reduce the number of dry holes while at the same time increasing our yield."

Whether a lot of gravel lies below the surface of the property that Eugene Sand hopes to mine is an important question - not least to the company, which has no interest in dry holes. Eugene Sand officials are betting the company on the strength of their belief that the site has enough gravel to sustain mining operations for decades to come.

With the high cost of oil exploration, particularly the drilling effort, dry holes are not an option.