Two treatment methods for water-based mud in oilfield drilling

2026-03-20

During the drilling procedure of oil and gas field, drilling mud that produces waste gas can be divided into water-based drilling mud and oil-based drilling mud according to different types of mud. Among them, water-based drilling waste mud has undergone toxicity testing and is classified as general waste and non hazardous waste.

Generally speaking,water-based drilling mud appears gray-green or gray.The sand content of the first and second mud is relatively high,and has a relatively large proportion.Meanwhile,cementing slurry and deep-well mud appears to be paste-like,less sand content,but relatively high viscosity.

They are all unusable mud that have been eliminated from the entire drilling fluid system.It has abundant organic and inorganic chemical treatment agents,many component pollution indicators even exceed national permissible emission concentration by many times.In general,the main pollutants contained in water-based drilling waste mud are: suspended solids, petroleum hydrocarbon, organic substance, Highly alkaline substance, heavy metal and other chemical additives.

Presently,with the continuous strictness of national environmental protection measures,the oilfield industry is going to be under increasing pressure of environmental protection.Drilling waste mud and rock fragments are the main pollutants during the oil well extraction process,recognized as the ordinary industrial solid waste which are under national essential control,should be in accordance with relevant requirements,while requesting resources from the environment, also pay attention to the restoration and protection of the environment.Incremental processing methods such as landfill are generally not accepted or even prohibited by oilfields.

There are mainly two solution for water based mud of oilfield drilling: On site drilling mud non-landing technology and centralized processing of water based mud.

The equipment for drilling water-based mud without landing mainly concludes:water-based transportation equipment、screening equipment、press and filter equipment、centrifugal equipment and medicine-added equipment.After screening,adding chemicals,filtering and dehydrating,the mud cake is sent to the landfill or brick factory for disposal.

The core meaning of water based mud waste disposal:

Avoid water based mud infiltrating into soil or water bodies,preventing ecological environment destruction from heavy metal and chemical additives.

Cancel traditional mud pool to reduce the land occupation of the well site and protect farmland and surface vegetation.

Reduce purchasing quantity,transportation cost of solid waste and land reclamation expenditure.

Modular equipment supports processing while drilling,promotes drilling efficiency and shorten working period.