Oil based drilling fluid waste: an overview on environmentally persistent pollutants.

Siddique, Shohel; Kwoffie, Lorraine; Addae-Afoakwa, Kofi; Yates, Kyari; Njuguna, James

Abstract

Operational discharges of spent drilling fluid, produced water, and accumulated drill cuttings from oil and gas industry are a continuous point source of environmental pollution. To meet the strict environmental standard for waste disposal, oil and gas industry is facing a numerous challenges in technological development to ensure a clean and safe environment. Oil and gas industry generates a large amount of spent drilling fluid, produced water, and drill cuttings, which are very different in every drilling operation in terms of composition and characterisation. This review article highlights the knowledge gap in identifying the different sources of waste streams in combined drilling waste. This paper also emphasises how different chemicals turn into environmentally significant pollutants after serving great performance in oil and gas drilling operations. For instance, oil based drilling fluid performs excellent in deeper drilling and drilling in the harsh geological conditions, but ended with (produces) a significant amount of persistent toxic pollutants in the environment. This review paper provides an overview on the basic concepts of drilling fluids and their functions, sources and characterisation of drilling wastes, and highlights some environmentally significant elements including different minerals present in drilling waste stream.

Citation

SIDDIQUE, S., KWOFFIE, L., ADDAE-AFOAKWA, K., YATES, K. and NJUGUNA, J. 2016. Oil based drilling fluid waste: an overview on environmentally persistent pollutants. IOP conference series: materials science and engineering [online], 195: proceedings of the 3rd International conference on structural nano composites (NANOSTRUC 2016), 12-16 September 2016, Aberdeen, UK, article number 012008. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/195/1/012008

• Journal Article Type: Conference Paper
• Conference Name: 3rd International conference on structural nano composites (NANOSTRUC 2016)
• Conference Location: Aberdeen, UK
• Start Date: Sep 12, 2016
• End Date: Sep 16, 2016
• Acceptance Date: Apr 27, 2017
• Online Publication Date: May 11, 2017
• Publication Date: May 11, 2017
• Deposit Date: Oct 13, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 13, 2017
• Journal: IOP conference series: materials science and engineering
• Print ISSN: 1757-8981
• Electronic ISSN: 1757-899X
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 195
• Article Number: 012008
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/195/1/012008
• Keywords: Environmental pollution; Oil and gas industry; Waste; Challenges; Drilling fluid
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2550