Mechanics, the oldest branch of physics, to this day remains the basis
for modern technology. This is especially evident with regard to the oil
and gas industry. Almost all of the technological processes in these
branches of industry, from the drilling of wells to the transporting of
oil and gas products via pipelines, are mechanical in their nature. The
processes of the development of oil and gas deposits are of primary
importance in the whole technological chain of oil and gas extraction
from the rocks and their transportation to the customer. The use of
scientific methods for improving technology is a long-established
tradition of oil and gas industry. For the Western reader, it is enough
to mention the fundamental treatises by the outstanding American
research scientist and engineer M. Muskat (1937, 1949) as well as the
excellent books of Scheidegger (1960) and Collins (1961) which combine
practical goals with profound theoretical analysis. The initiators of
the application of mechanics for solving problems of the oil and gas
industry in the U.S.S.R. were V.G. Shukhov (1981) and LS. Leibenzon
(1934, 1947, 1953, 1955) whose works constitute admirable examples of
Soviet technical thought. During recent times, the magnitude of oil and
gas extraction has increased immensely and many reservoirs with
complicated physical and geological properties have, therefore, entered
into the development. The fundamental problem of enhancing oil and gas
recovery from rocks has been intensively and deeply analyzed.
