Investigation of Drill Cuttings Reinjection: Environmental Management in Iranian Ahwaz Oilfield

Abstract

This study was to assess the feasibility of drill cuttings reinjection (DCRI) by hydraulic fracturing in two typical wellbore configurations: annulus injection and a dedicated disposal well by tubing and packer completion in one of the oil wells in Ahwaz oilfield. This article shows that the Mishan formation is more appropriate for DCRI in the Ahwaz oilfield. The optimum parameters such as injection rate, batch size, and shut-in time were simulated and used to determine the geometry of hydraulic fractures created during injection and to ensure that the fractures are precisely developed within the targeted injection zone.

Overview of Environmental Management by Drill Cutting Re-Injection Through Hydraulic Fracturing in Upstream Oil and Gas Industry

“…Numerous scenarios were considered in the feasibility studies to ensure safe containment of any injected drilling waste. More details could be found by Shadizadeh and Zoveidavianpoor, (2011).…”

The application of the yield approach to study slurry migration in drill cuttings waste underground disposal

“…Large amounts of drill cuttings waste (DCW) are generated by the gas/oil industry each year. How to dispose of this large amount of waste with limited negative environmental impact remains a big challenge to the industry (Bagatin et al, 2014;Shadizadeh et al, 2011). A range of practical methods like landfilling, thermal treatment and stabilization / solidification (S/S) (Kogbara et al, 2017(Kogbara et al, , 2016 as well as underground storage (e.g., Zha et al, 2018) have been employed to dispose of waste over the years.…”

“…Given the fact that most slurries are non-Newtonian fluid, mainly plastic fluid and pseudoplastic fluid, with various rheological characteristics, it is difficult to represent diverse slurries in different injection environments by one general rheological model. It is even more challenging to incorporate the complex rheology of various slurries, the interaction between the slurry and the fluid flow in subsurface formations, into numerical simulations.However, the aforementioned solid transport models ignore the miscibility of the slurry with groundwater Shadizadeh et al (2011). used the power law relationship to characterize the rheology of slurry, but did not take the particle settlement into consideration.…”

Characterization of drilling waste from shale gas exploration in Central and Eastern Poland

“…Disposal is the least preferred waste management option from the environmental point of view. Cuttings’ reinjection (Shadizadeh et al 2011 ), onsite burial (Onwukwe and Nwakaudu 2012 ), waste pits, landfills, land-farming/land-spreading (Saint-Fort and Ashtani 2013 ), bioremediation, composting (Paladino et al 2016 ), and vermi-culture (Adekomaya 2014 ; Sharif et al 2017 ) are the examples of disposal methods for onshore operations.…”