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What are the advantages of oil based mud?

What are the advantages of oil based mud?

Oil-based muds have become more widely used because of their distinct advantages over water-based muds. Boyd el al. list (1) thermal stability in deep, high-temperature wells, (2) increased lubricity in deviated offshore wells, and (3) hole stability in thick, water-sensitive shales as advantages of oil-based muds.

Is oil based mud environmentally friendly?

Palm oil and groundnut oil are highly biodegradable and have better eco-toxicological properties compared to diesel. Most environmental protection regulations are favourably disposed to vegetable oil-based mud because of their high biodegradability and minimal impact on the ecosystem and its organisms.

What is the difference between oil based mud and water-based mud?

Oil-Based muds can be formulated to withstand high temperatures over long periods of time, however, Water-Based mud can break down and lead to loss of viscosity and fluid loss control. The initial cost of Oil-Based mud is high, especially those formulations based on mineral or synthetic fluids.

What is oil drilling mud?

Drilling mud, also called drilling fluid, in petroleum engineering, a heavy, viscous fluid mixture that is used in oil and gas drilling operations to carry rock cuttings to the surface and also to lubricate and cool the drill bit.

How is oil based mud made?

Oil-based mud is a drilling fluid used in drilling engineering. It is composed of oil as the continuous phase and water as the dispersed phase in conjunction with emulsifiers, wetting agents and gellants. The external phase is oil and does not allow the water to contact the formation. The shales don’t become water wet.

Is drilling bentonite biodegradable?

AMC BENTONITE PELLETS R30™ are compressed tablets made from highly swelling sodium bentonite coated with a biodegradable non-sticking film that retards the hydration time and when placed forms a flexible, non-toxic impermeable seal.

Why water-based mud is used?

Water-based fluids (WBFs) are used to drill approximately 80% of all wells. The base fluid may be fresh water, seawater, brine, saturated brine, or a formate brine. For example, the surface interval typically is drilled with a low-density water- or seawater-based mud that contains few commercial additives.

Why is barite used in drilling mud?

Barite increases the hydrostatic pressure of the drilling mud allowing it to compensate for high-pressure zones experienced during drilling. The softness of the mineral also prevents it from damaging drilling tools during drilling and enables it to serve as a lubricant.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of oil based mud?

3. Water-based mud can easily block the layers of very low permeability and influence the capability. 4. Oil-based mud can support the shale formation and its oil molecules cannot penetrate into tiny organic and non-organic pores under the capillary pressure.

Why is it important to use drilling mud?

Drilling mud plays an vital role in balancing formation pressure, lubricating and cooling bit on drilling processing. Due to its high cost and severe pollution to local environment, circulation utilization of drilling mud has been adopt by most of drilling companies.

What does electrical stability of oil base mud mean?

Electrical Stability is a measure of how well the water is emulsified in the continuous oil phase. Because many factors affect the electrical stability of oil-based muds, the test does not necessarily indicate that particular oil-base mud, the test does not necessarily indicate that a particular oil-base mud is in good or in poor condition.

Why are emulsifiers important in oil based mud?

Emulsifiers are very important in oil-based mud because water contamination on the drilling rig is very likely and can be detrimental to oil mud. Thinners, on the other hand, are far more important in water-based mud than in oil-based mud; oil is dielectric, so there are no interparticle electric forces to be nullified.