DRILLING FLUIDS

Drilling fluid -mud – is usually a mixture of water, clay, weighing material and a few chemicals. Sometimes oil may be used instead of water, or oil added to the water to give the mud certain desirable properties. Drilling fluid is used to raise the cuttings made by the bit and lift them to the surface for disposal.

But equally important, it also provides a means of keeping underground pressures in check. The heavier or denser the mud, is the more pressure it exerts. So weighing materials -barite – are added to the mud to make it exert as much pressure as needed to contain formation pressures. The equipment in the circulating system consists of a large number of items. The mud pump takes in mud from the mud pits and sends it out a discharge line to a standpipe. The standpipe is a steel pipe mounted vertically on one leg of the mast or derrick. The mud is pumped up the standpipe and into a flexible, very strong, reinforced rubber hose called the rotary hose or kelly hose.
The rotary hose is connected to the swivel . The mud enters the swivel the swivel:goes down the kelly, drill pipe and drill collars and exist at the bit. It then does a sharp U-turn and heads back up the hole in the annulus. The annulus is the space between the outside of the drill string and wall of the hole. Finally the mud leaves the hole through a steel pipe called the mud return line and falls over a vibrating, screen like device called the shale shaker. Agitators installed on the mud pits help maintain a uniform mixture of liquids and solids in the mud. If any fine silt or sand is being drilled, then devices called desilters or desanders may be added. Another
auxiliary in the mud system is a device called degasser.