Volume 16 Number 4 - GEO Drilling Fluids, Inc.

Drilling Fluids, Inc.
TECHNICAL SERVICES NEWSLETTER
Volume XVI, Number 4 July 1, 2012
WHAT DO YOU WANT IT TO BE?
I
VALLEY OF OIL
n 1964 the Independent Petroleum Association
of America and The Oildale News produced a
slim volume commemorating 100 years of oil
production in Kern County. There are many fascinating
stories based mostly on published reports
and stories from newspapers.
One of the sections of this book traces the
founding and development of the Tidewater Oil
Company. The story begins in 1895 in Coalinga
which is still an oil producing region of California.
Colorful Charlie Canfield, one of the
“fathers” of what is now Tidewater Oil
Company (now part of ConocoPhillips),
discovered San Joaquin Valley’s famous old
“Oil City” field in 1895 because the fourhorse
wagon that carried his drilling rig got
bogged down and couldn’t be moved.
Valley of Oil
(Connued on page 2)
“Hide not your talents. They for use
were made. What’s a sundial in the
shade?”― Benjamin Franklin
American Statesman, Scienst, Philosopher,
Printer, Writer and Inventor. 1706-1790
1. If filtrate is pink after adding Phenolphthalein
and your pH meter reads 8.2: a) replace your
pH meter, b) replace you Phenolphthalein, c)
add more Desco, d) your filtrate may be lightly
buffered.
2. When making large additions of Barite: a)
don’t run mud cleaner, b) don’t run centrifuge,
c) don’t run degasser, e) don’t run water.
3. Wash the shaker screens: a) with soap and water,
b) as rarely as practical, c) from back to
front, d) from underneath.
W
ANSWERS ON PAGE 2
SAFETY
atch for a survey from Chuck Cartwright
about insurance and employee content (or
discontent). It is important that you take a moment
to fill it out and return it to the office in Bakersfield.
An additional safety award drawing will be held for
those who respond by the date indicated on the
questionnaire.
Remember that if you have any sort of incident,
whether an injury or vehicle accident, it must be
reported to Chuck as soon as possible, 24/7/365.
Waiting a few days is not acceptable.
Pictures taken at a vehicle incident site should
be of the non-GEO vehicle(s). As well as the general
surroundings.
"Lord, keep Your arm around my shoulder
and Your hand over my mouth!"

TECHNICAL SERVICES NEWSLETTER VOLUME XVI NUMBER 4 July 1, 2012
Canfield and a man named J. A. Chanslor,
both former gold miners, had formed a partnership
and after drilling some wells in the
Los Angeles area, they shipped their rig to
Coalinga where Canfield loaded it on a wagon
and headed back into the hills to wildcat. A
few miles from town the wagon sank down to
its axles in an alkali dry-bog.
After working furiously for several hours
to get the wagon free, Canfield gave up in
disgust and exclaimed, “Hell! This is just as
good a place as any to drill.” He unloaded the
old “fiddle rig” and put it to work right by the
side of the road. The hole had barely been
drilled to a depth of 400 feet when Charlie
had himself an oil well that flowed light crude
at the rate of 25 barrels a day.”
Four years later, in 1899, a man named J. M.
Ellwood discovered oil in the Kern River section of
the San Joaquin Valley (about 7 miles north of Bakersfield)
… at a depth of 75 feet. The shallow production
was inexpensive to develop. This started
such a rush of drilling that within a short time production
of oil in California had tripled. Prices fell
rapidly, and for some time crude oil could be
bought for as little as 10 cents a barrel.
THE MUD MAN’S CORNER
Near Miss (or is it a Near Hit?)
T
he photograph below of a retort kit shows a
problem with the power cord. There are several
issues here. First and most obvious is that the insulation
is badly broken. This can allow water to
penetrate into the cord and plug causing a short circuit.
It can also lead to bare wires presenting the
possibility of a shock. Any time that a power cord
develops a break in the insulation it should be replaced
or repaired.
The second problem shown here is not as clear.
The reason the power cord insulation broke is that it
was wrapped tightly around the unit while still
plugged in whenever it was not in use. The stress of
being tightly kinked right next to the plug led to the
equipment failure. Power cords should be stored
rolled into loops.
ANSWERS TO WHAT DO YOU WANT IT TO BE?
1. d) your filtrate may be lightly buffered
2. a) don’t run mud cleaner
3. c) from back to front
PAGE 2
Retort Etiquette
If the retort results indicate a solids content that
is unbelievably high there are several potential
problems that have caused this effect. Perhaps the
Retort
(Connued on page 3)

TECHNICAL SERVICES NEWSLETTER VOLUME XVI NUMBER 4 July 1, 2012
Retort
(Connued from page 2)
most common cause is that the Tube (see the photograph
below) is plugged with oily residue. This can
happen with oil base mud when the fatty acids
cause the problem or in mud with crude oil in it
where the asphaltenes and paraffins cool in the tube
Exposed Wires
Tube
Condenser
Threads
Cell
and harden. Clean the tube regularly with a pipe
cleaner, drill or special wire brush. PetroDrill solvent
should be used to rinse out the tube after every
few tests.
Thermostat
High solids may be the result of the thermostat
suddenly not working and the temperature not getting
to the required 950° F. The thermostat usually
fails catastrophically, with the retort not heating at
all. Rarely does it go out of adjustment suddenly.
Adjusting the thermostat should only be done when
a 1000° F thermometer is available. Just guessing
at how far to turn the adjusting screw can lead to
overheating and serious damage.
ball that is 50% larger than the cell diameter works
well.
Is the Mud Cleaner Throwing Out Barite?
The recommended screen size to allow Barite to
return to the mud system is anything coarser than
200 API. Be sure to use the API size, not the part
number or other mesh designations.
In order to determine the content of the solids
going to the sump you should catch a sample and
measure the density (specific gravity) with the mud
balance. If the material is too dry to get a good
weight a small amount of water may be added. This
in no way effects the results. Be sure not to add
enough water that separation starts to occur.
Take the same material from the mud scale and
fill a retort. With the retort results you can determine
the percent barite. This can be done on the
GEO Drilling Fluids mud report by simply substituting
the mud weight and retort results from the
mud cleaner for the mud test results in the mud
checks section. The Daily Mud Report will show
the amount of barite being discarded for every bbl
of material going off the slide.
North Dakota Dewatering
This picture shows a rig in North Dakota. In the
foreground is a dewatering unit. This equipment is
used to remove the finest solids from drilling mud.
When the horizontal section is drilled with salt water
the dewatering unit can maintain the corrected
solids content at or near 0%.
Steel Wool
Steel wool is used in the retort to keep the boiling
mud from getting to the tube before it is converted
to steam. The steel wool should be designated
000 or 0000 in order to be fine enough to provide
a proper barrier. The amount of steel wool to
use is learned by experience, but if you use too
much it will restrict the flow of steam while using
too little will allow whole mud to pass over to the
condenser and into the graduated cylinder. A soft
PAGE 3
GEO ZERO-LW Dewatering Unit.

TECHNICAL SERVICES NEWSLETTER VOLUME XVI NUMBER 4 July 1, 2012
THERMAL EXPANSION
Effect of Temperature on Mud Weight
in PetroDrill Systems
By Aaron Philips
W
ith few exemptions, materials expand when
they are heated. As the temperature rises in
our PetroDrill oil base mud system, both the oil and
the salt water in the fluid expand. This expansion
can be observed when the mud weight at the flow
line is lower than at the suction. As the mud cools in
the surface pits the liquids contract resulting in increased
mud weight. When precise mud weight
control is critical it is important to be able to calculate
the expected change in mud weight as the temperature
of the fluid changes.
PetroDrill has three main components: LVT-200
enheit. With LVT-200 more data is available and a
range of expansion rates may me used for various
temperatures and pressures (See Table 1). These
expansion coefficients are useful when calculating
volume changes in the hole but for surface density
changes the only coefficient needed for most situations
is 0.000374. This formula is for surface mud:
MW 2 =
MW 1
(S + W x (1 + 0.000358 x ΔT) + O x (1 + 0.000374 x ΔT))
Other Uses
Due to the contraction of the fluid as it cools
after a long trip the mud weight in the pits can be
very elevated. By using the above equation one can
demonstrate what the mud weight will be once the
system has returned to the normal operating temperature.
The expansion of mud in the well bore as
it heats up can cause a small amount of flow when
pumps are turned off. This can lead to the incorrect
assumption that the well is flowing if only very
short flow checks are taken. For the expansion of
mud in the well bore the expansion coefficients utilized
to determine the expected change in volume
depend on the bottom hole temperatures and pressures
and are calculated using Table 1.
oil, CaCl 2 water, and solids (including clays, drill
solids and Barite). Even over the most extreme temperature
range that PetroDrill goes through the solids
do not expand to any measurable degree. The
liquids, LVT-200 and CaCl 2 water, do expand significantly
over the same temperature range.
Calculations
To calculate the mud weight at a different temperature
(MW 2 ) the following information is used:
1. Change in temperature = ∆T
2. Known mud weight = MW 1
3. Percent oil from retort = O
4. Corrected percent solids = S
5. Corrected percent water = W
CaCl 2 water expands 0.0358% per degree Fahr-
PAGE 4
Pressure
(PSI)
Expansion per °F
75 °F to 200 °F
Expansion per °F
200 °F to 300 °F
0 0.000374 0.000417
1,500 0.000354 0.000380
3,000 0.000336 0.000351
4,500 0.000331 0.000342
6,000 0.000321 0.000328
7,500 0.000306 0.000308
9,000 0.000294 0.000292
10,500 0.000283 0.000278
12,000 0.000272 0.000268
13,500 0.000263 0.000259
15,000 0.000255 0.000251
Table 1: Change in volume of LVT-200 as temperature
is changed over normal operang temperatures and
pressures of wells.

TECHNICAL SERVICES NEWSLETTER VOLUME XVI NUMBER 4 July 1, 2012
RELIEF ETIQUETTE
How you would like it to be.
Don Boulet, Operations Manager, Northern California
B
ack in the old days (in the 1970’s—1980’s)
relieving a mud engineer was rare as most
jobs were done by a single person without days off.
Now we relieve each other as often as every week.
What you do to make the job seamless from the
customer’s perspective is critical to a good job with
rave reviews.
Simplify Your Communication
It’s not about big words or long explanations.
It’s about keeping it simple. When you start telling
the story of what has been happening make the beginning
exciting so you get his attention. Start with
the remarkable success or disaster. Then go over the
meat of the matter, discussing relations with the
hands, product consumption, and how the wind is
blowing with the DSM/Company Man. Finish up
with a review of the current activity.
Look Them in the Eye
Talking face to face is effective. Cell phone to
cell phone is NOT as effective and should only be
used as a last resort. Communication has to be a
two way street. When you are seeing the reactions
of the other person you can tell if they are getting
the importance of what you are saying. If they are
staring out the window just waiting for you to drive
off so they can go about their business without your
You may be wondering why it’s
always the mud man’s fault…
there are two thing that go in the
hole, there’s steel and there’s
mud… and it’s prey hard to screw
up steel.
input they may need to be jolted back to reality.
Tell the Truth!
There is no better way to establish your credibility
than to tell the truth. Come on… he’s going to
check it after you leave. Regardless of what the official
line is you gain nothing by failing to fully disclose
the current situation. It may be in the process
of being changed or fixed but your relief still needs
to know.
Get a Response
One person doing all the talking is NOT the
form of communication that makes for good relief.
Respond to what you are hearing. Ask questions.
Become a part of the process, not just an empty
vessel being filled with information.
Count the Material
Daily counting of the material on location is the
only accurate way to determine what is being used.
Relief day gives you a chance to have two sets of
eyes on the process to catch mistakes. Those hidden
sacks of GeoZan that are laying on a partial pallet
of sawdust. Or the pallet of Desco with 10 sacks
missing from the far side. The last thing you want is
to finish a well and be way off on the inventory.
Customers don’t like those surprises, whether in
their favor or not.
One Final Thought
Keep this in mind as you interact with each other
as well as with the roughnecks. This is a quote
from Charles Schwab, 1870-1939, who was the
head of Bethlehem Steel. “I have yet to find the
man, however exalted his station, who did
not do better work and put forth greater effort
under a spirit of approval than under a
spirit of criticism.”
Barite Ore
PAGE 5