Application of low-income agro-waste materials as filtration loss control agents in a water based drilling mud

Saw dust (SD) and oil palm fruit waste (OPFW) were pretreated and pulverized accordingly, into particle sizes of <150µm and 150µm - 250µm range to serve as additives. Drilling mud was formulated based on standard procedure. Seventeen portions of the drilling mud were formulated having the first portion as a control with no additive. Four groups of each portion were made from the remaining 16 and additives were added with varying amounts ranging from 5g to 20g. Drilling mud properties were measured according to standard methods before and after addition of the additives and the performance of the materials were compared. Results showed that, with increasing amount of additives, filtration volume decreased while, mud cake increased. The results also showed that although, SD slightly outperformed OPFW only at lower particle sizes (<150µm), in terms of cake characteristics, fine and slippery mud cake formed with OPFW mud as opposed to the rough and hard cake obtained from the mud formulated with SD could also make OPFW more preferable. The study concluded that, due to the findings of this study, agro-waste materials, especially, SD and OPFW are veritable candidates for alternative loss circulation materials in drilling fluid.