About: Torpedo (petroleum)
A torpedo is an explosive device used, especially in the early days of the petroleum industry, to fracture the surrounding rock at the bottom of an oil well to stimulate the flow of oil and to remove built-up paraffin wax that would restrict the flow. Earlier torpedoes used gunpowder, but the use of nitroglycerin eventually became widespread. The development of hydraulic fracturing rendered torpedoes obsolete, and is the primary fracturing process used today.
