Optimization of drilling fluid parameters such as mud weight, salt concentration, and temperature is essential to alleviate instability problems during drilling through shale sections. The selection of suitable mud parameters can benefit from analyses that consider significant instability processes involved in shale-drilling–fluid interactions. This paper describes the development of analytical...

Oil and gas drilling is based, increasingly, on operational technology, whose cybersecurity is complicated by several challenges. We propose a graphical model for cybersecurity risk assessment based on Adversarial Risk Analysis to face those challenges. We also provide an example of the model in the context of an offshore drilling rig. The proposed model provides a more formal and comprehensive...

In this study, synthetic sulfonated polymers were used in order to enhance the rheological properties of drilling fluids. The capability of these polymers in reducing the effects of environmentally friendly, but harmful, pollutants such as cement, calcium chloride, gypsum as well as pH changes were investigated. In the present work, two sulfonated synthetic polymers, namely Polythin and Polydri...

When drilling an oil well, the well is lined by sinking a steel casing, or liner, into the drilling mud (see Figure 1). The inside of the liner forms a central pipe, and leaves an annular gap between the outside of the liner and the surrounding rock. The inside and outside of the liner are initially filled with drilling mud, which is displaced by pumping a sequence of fluids down inside the lin...

In this study, three different vegetable-based cutting fluids developed from raw and refined sunflower oil and two commercial types (vegetable and mineral based cutting oils), were carried out to determine for thrust force and surface roughness during drilling of AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel with HSSE tool. The uses of vegetable cutting oils was investigated in reducing thrust force and ...

strict new safety rules announced after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, but in most cases won't be subjected to new environmental reviews. The announcement means that some drilling could resume within weeks, although the exact timing remains unclear. But the policy doesn't affect the more than a dozen permit requests that were pending when the moratorium took effect or have been filed since. Th...

There are essentially three main categories of drilling fluids: oil based fluids (OBF’s), synthetic based fluids (SBF’s) and water based fluids (WBF’s). OBF’s have been traditionally been used for their high performance drilling characteristics but tend to have a poor environmental performance in terms of their ecotoxicity and their tendency to persist in cuttings piles on the seafloor. More re...

Fluid invasion from water-based drilling mud (WBDM) into the shale formations causes swelling, high pressure zone near the wellbore wall, and eventually wellbore instability problems during drilling operations. For the stability of the wellbore, physical plugging of nanoscale pore throats could be considered as a logical approach toward avoiding the fluid invasion into the shale formation. This...

Drilling operations of petroleum generate oily wastes. The disposal of a significant amount of oil-based drill muds has caused soil contamination and critical environmental impacts in the last decades.The current study aimed to investigate the potential of microbial remediation for an aged oil-based drilling waste and to monitor the fluctuation in microbial population throughout a ...