Tests On Locally Sourced Mud Bio-Additives Show Better Rheological and Loss Circulation Control Properties to Enhance Drilling Performance and Guarantee Energy Supply

Abstract Designing a drilling mud with relevant additives plays a vital role in having a successful drilling operation to sustain oil and gas supply. When a drilling fluid is poorly formulated with deficient additives, various problems such as loss circulation of drilling mud usually occur during drilling operations and this cause deferments in oil and gas supply chain. The objective of this paper is to highlight the use of locally sourced environmentally friendly bio- additives (dried sugarcane husks, dried palm kernel fiber and dried tiger-nut husks) as bio-additives for the enhancement of the loss circulation properties of a water-based drilling mud to conventional drilling mud with sodium hydroxide pH enhancer. Nine water-based mud samples were prepared with seven of these samples having varying concentration of the bio-additives as loss circulation materials. The eighth sample contained only limestone but no bio-additives while the ninth sample labelled as the control had zero concentration of the bio-additives and limestone. Tests carried out were mud density using the Baroid mud balance, viscosity using rotary viscometer, gel strength using rotational viscometer, pH using electronic pH meter and mud filtration tests using API filter press multi-unit. The various results obtained were compared with the standards as provided by API. The nine water-based mud samples prepared with varying concentration of the bio-additives showed promising results for critical mud properties such as mud density - within the API acceptable range of 8.45 – 12.00 ppg - and other properties like the plastic viscosity, apparent viscosity, yield point, mud filtrate and mud cake thickness were within values preferred by the drilling engineers as they result to lower circulating pressure that facilitate drilling processes. This paper highlights how cheap, locally sourced, and environmentally friendly agricultural wastes can become resources in mud formulation, hence need to reduce the dependence on the use of the toxic and costly chemical additives thus safeguarding the environment at large. The organic nature of these additives makes it environmentally friendly having little or no effect on the subsurface formation.