My understanding is that the well is measured from the point at which drilling starts -- so the Deepwater Horizon started lower down, and one can therefore argu

My understanding is that the well is measured from the point at which drilling starts -- so the Deepwater Horizon started lower down, and one can therefore argue that the depth they reached (as opposed to the depth they drilled) is 11,944m. It's maybe not a useful technical measure, but it's a lot closer in "depth" than I imagined it would be given the amount of attention given to the Kola borehole, and especially the tales of the difficulties they faced. Makes me think that one of the big oil companies could probably beat the record if they wanted.