Drilling Fluid Management & Disposal
Drilling fluid waste management and solids control of drilling mud related technical and developed situation.
Crude oil tank bottoms and other petroleum oily sludges and emulsions containing paraffins and volatile hydrocarbons can be economically reprocessed with heavy-oil dehydration facilities to recover residual hydrocarbons and to achieve volume reductions.
Continue reading “Oily Sludges Thermal Treatment”
A major component in drilling operation success is drilling fluid performance. The cost of searching for hydrocarbon reserves becomes more expensive when drilling occurs offshore, in deep water, and in hostile environments. These drilling environments require fluids that excel in performance. Measuring fluid performance requires the evaluation of all key drilling parameters and their associated cost. Simply stated, the effectiveness of a fluid is judged by its influence on overall well cost. This chapter discusses the various fundamentals of drilling fluids and their performance in assuring a safe and expeditious drilling operation at minimum overall cost.
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Much of the drilling in unconventional resource plays occurs in unstable shales, which are usually fractured and can be easily destabilized. Successful drilling through them can be difficult at best, and many high-angled holes in these plays are often lost due to mechanical instability. This paper looks at the drilling problems of shale gas drilling from the theoretical perspective of Wellbore Pressure Management, (WPM) and keys in on the effects of Equivalent Circulating Density (ECD) while drilling and on the effects of Equivalent Static Density (ESD) when there is no circulation.
Continue reading “Drilling in Fracture Shales: Another Look at the Mud Weight Problem”
When oil-based mud is used, the drilled formation solids (cuttings) are regarded as controlled or hazardous waste. As such, they can be disposed of in three ways: decontamination treatment followed by discharge into the sea, injection of the cuttings into the well, or transfer to a controlled hazardous-waste landfill. The lowest environmental effect for solids disposal, especially for offshore operation, is decontamination treatment followed by discharge. However, conventional decontamination technology exhibits limited efficiency in extracting oil from the drill solids.
Continue reading “Enhanced Treatment of Oil-Contaminated Cuttings – Nanoemulsion”
