Presently, the main advantage to rotary drilling over coiled-tubing drilling is the amount of horizontal section that can be drilled. In rotary drilling, the pipe connections provide more stability to the drillstring than is the case with coiled-tubing drilling. The technology of coiled-tubing drilling is improving, but currently the outer limit of a horizontal section drilled with coiled-tubing unit appears to be about 3,000 ft. This compares to about 5,000 ft with a rotary-drilling unit drilling through tubing.