Revolutionizing Offshore Drilling: The Robotic Enhanced Barite Recovery and Waste Reduction System for Mud Tank Cleaning

Abstract The offshore drilling operation is supported by specialized drilling mud that contains barite to increase its density. Often, barite falls out of suspension within the drilling mud, between the time of offtake to the Offshore Supply Vessel (OSV) reaching dockside. Although the mud tanks are equipped with circulation pumps to ensure that the drilling mud remains in suspension, large volume of barite could still be lost during the tank cleaning operation. This paper describes the development and testing of a robotic enhanced barite recovery (REBR) system that aims to identify, qualify, and pilot a robotic technology capable of agitating and fluidizing the settled barite back into suspension within the drilling mud, enabling the asset owners to return the mud and associated barite for credit, reduce confined space entry and the environmental footprint of the drilling operations. Additionally, the paper details the performance verification and validation, lessons learned from prototype testing, and perspectives on future system improvements. The prototype of REBR has shown promising results when tested with simulated water-based drilling mud, outperforming current mud tank cleaning operations. The REBR system successfully achieves a barite recovery rate of approximately 8.3 cubic feet per minute and recovers more than 50% of the barite material from the simulated mud mixture within about 12 minutes of operation.