Maximising Operational Efficiencies and Reducing Well Cost Through Effective Drilling Waste Management Solutions

Abstract

Drilling at remote sites, such as artificial islands, comes with challenges, not least of which is drilling waste management. Drill cuttings, generated from the wellbore during drilling, are traditionally the focus of attention and a solution is available to treat this waste stream at source. However, in many projects slop waste and, in some cases, conductor drilling waste is also generated. Until now, no one process has been able to treat these two additional waste streams at source. Adopting traditional waste treatment methods for these waste streams at a remote site could increase project overheads by more than 200%, versus a conventional well site location. Therefore, it is important to maximise efficiencies when it comes to recycling all drilling waste streams, recovering value and reducing disposal requirements at remote sites. This paper outlines how a single process using modular equipment, originally deployed to process drill cuttings, has now been developed to deal with all three key waste streams. The process was developed when a major operator in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) required a solution for the treatment of conductor drilling waste produced at one of the region's largest fields at an artificial island complex. The ground-breaking solution developed allows for conductor drilling waste, created by a piling rig, and legacy slop stored at the location for nearly seven years, to be treated on site using a single process. This was done in addition to day-to-day drilling waste management, resulting in economic, operational, safety and environmental benefits. This achievement was primarily through the identification by TWMA of capacity within its thermal drilling waste treatment technology to eliminate the waste streams generated at source. Opening the operating window of the technology eliminated significant haul-off costs, reduced emissions and health, safety and environmental (HSE) risk and improved operational efficiency. The new strategy was implemented in 2019. Since then, the solution has successfully dealt with a legacy waste stream amounting to seven years' worth or 13,500 MT of conductor drilling waste and 40,000 bbl of stored slop waste, in addition to ongoing drill cuttings treatment. Removing both of these waste streams has achieved significant operational, safety and environmental savings including: the elimination of onshore transportation, processing and landfill costs, elimination of island services and storage, a significant reduction in skip lifting operations and waste handling, a reduction in manpower requirements due to use of existing equipment and personnel, and a reduction of risk to the environment posed by the storage of the waste streams. The operator now also has significantly more land area available for other purposes. By processing at source, clear tangible savings have been achieved in all areas of the operation. This strategy allowed the operator to set new standards with regards to drilling waste management in the UAE. It has also driven a discussion globally about how to deal with multiple waste streams by opening the operating window of existing single-process systems instead of requiring additional processing equipment.

Utilization of drilling waste when drilling wells in the fields of the western oil and gas region of Ukraine

“…Using this technology, we can make cylindrical soil-cement elements with a diameter from 0.3 to 0.8 m and a length of up to 30 m [4,5]. In order to prevent filtration, the wall of soil-cement elements is buried in the waterproof layer of the soil (clay) to a depth of at least 1 m. However, there should be no filtration of the water environment.…”

“…At present, methods aimed at the disposal of drilling waste are used, such as: the use of soil cement, waterproofing during the construction of barns, biological disposal and waste processing. This happened primarily due to thermal treatment of drilling waste by the TWMA company in order to preserve the ecological situation [4].…”

“…The bottom of the soil-cement storage is arranged as follows. Soil cement is prepared separately, then poured into the bottom of the storage [4].…”

Measurement development for eco-innovation capabilities of Malaysian oil and gas firms

“…For instance, attainment of lower oil and gas production costs can be the result of lowering or eliminating costs associated with environmental cleanup, liability and/or disposal of waste materials such as drill cuttings. Drill cuttings can be reinjected into the well resulting in a lower impact on the environment (Hinden et al , 2020). Another instance is lower production costs can be realized due to adoption of environmental pollution prevention innovations such as slim hole drilling technologies – leading to optimized production processes that lower emissions and removal of pollutants associated with oil or gas production (Sitinjak et al , 2020).…”