Tag: mud weight

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DUAL-DENSITY MUD SYSTEM FOR DEEPWATER DRILLING OPERATIONS

Drilling operations in waters deeper than 3,000 ft are increasing throughout the world, and the industry is considering the challenges imposed by ultradeep waters. Leases have been obtained in water depths up to 10,000 ft, with the requirement that they be drilled within the next decade. Use of current technology to drill these leases will require extremely large floating drilling units and large-diameter marine-riser systems.

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Decanting Centrifuge In Weighted Muds

The decanting centrifuge is used in weighted mud applications to recover valuable weighting material from mud which must be discharged due to unacceptable colloidal solids content. The decanter centrifuge settles out barite and coarse drilled solids which are returned to the active mud system to maintain density. The relatively clean centrate containing liquid and colloidal solids is discarded. These colloidal solids cause many drilling fluid problems, such as high surge/swab pressures and ECDs, differential sticking, and high chemical costs. Usually, the value of the weighting agent in these mud systems makes it economic to recover the weighting agent from the whole mud before it is discarded. Fig. 1 gives an example of the economics of centrifuging weighted muds.

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