Oil In places like Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Venezuela, there are lakes of oil, called. oil fields, under the ground. To get the oil, people drill holes in the ground called oil wells. Some of these wells arc several kilometers deep! In other places, huge machines called oil platforms drill wells under the sea. There are often bad storms at sea, so oil platforms have to be very strong. Under the water, some platforms are as tall as skyscrapers - the world's tallest buildings.