BAKER HUGHES - Drilling Fluids Reference Manual

FLUIDS ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES
The big bags when emptied need cleaning before final disposal, again this leads to additional oily slop
waste. Plus the big bags themselves are an unnecessary waste item.
d) Packaging
• Mixing on rigs results in large amount of waste packaging - sacks, drums, plastic wrapping,
pallets, etc.
Current drilling fluid practice is to ship many individual components to the installations for fluid
building and maintenance. Considerable packaging waste is generated in this process. While recent
advances in offshore plant have made some improvement in this area, there is still excessive
packaging waste to be disposed of.
Recommendations to Reduce Surplus Volumes and Wastes at the Rig Site
The following procedures and actions can be applied to reduce surplus volumes and waste at the rig
site:
a) Reviewing the primary solids control equipment and plumbing to identify the best-in-class
equipment and /or layout for each installation to reduce dilution by removing low gravity solids
before they become included into the system. This approach will dramatically reduce both the
volumes of fluids and waste to be handled and subsequently processed. A reduction of more than
10% in dilution and discharges from this action can be expected.
b) Ensuring the correct screens are used for each formation encountered considerably reduces the
number of shaker screens utilised on each well.
c) The installation and correct use of efficient centrifuges for density reductions will greatly reduce
the volume of dilution fluid normally used for density decreases. This reduces the need to dump
or handle excessive volumes.
d) The use of these recommendations will reduce the cost of building unnecessary fluid for dilution
and the volume of surplus fluid that would subsequently need to be handled and shipped to shore
for processing.
Recommendations to Reduce Surplus Slop Waste at the Rig Site
a) The preferred approach for handling oil contaminated water is, where ever possible, to reduce
the unnecessarily excessive volume of clean water that is incorporated into the waste that will be
shipped for treatment. This may be achieved as follows:
• Segregate drains that are likely to contain heavy hydrocarbons with minimal water (i.e. crane
containment, pump, engine and compressor skids) directly to a waste oil containment tank
and handle separately.
• Re-route drains from areas that are likely to contain limited hydrocarbons and filter this
through oil specific filter medium or collect it into a skimmer tank to remove any gravity-
separated oil prior to discharging or disposal.
• All drilling package drains (i.e. drill floor, mud treatment areas) should be routed to an OBM
slop waste storage tank. This slop can then either be shipped to shore for processing or
processed on site, space and deck load permitting. If an on site process is feasible then the
concentrated OBM waste could be reused in the system, providing it was contained close to
or less than the water percentage of the mud system.
• Use a mud vacuum system to recover all drilling fluid spills back into the active system
before they enter the drains. This will
reduce the cost of processing slop waste.
BAKER HUGHES DRILLING FLUIDS
REFERENCE MANUAL
REVISION 2006 14-23