Abstract
Abstract I thank Benning for his extensive comments and support of most of my remarks. In my 38 years as a mud engineer, both in research and in the field, I have seen many magic applications rise, shine, and sink. Much frustration and waste of money is prevented if petroleum engineers are more critical and distinguish between sales talk and science, between theory and practice. Undoubtedly, oil-based muds (OBM's) outperform water-based muds (WBM's) in specific problem areas, but I believe they have been oversold and applied where no hard facts justified their use. In particular, the claimed higher rate of penetration has never been proved scientifically. In drilling practice, too many factors play a role to justify the conclusions without studies supported by measurements in the laboratory. With a relaxed WL CLS mud of the same weight and bottom-cleaning performance, with more weight on bit (as read on the weight indicator) to correct for the friction loss, and with all other factors the same, I expect little noticeable difference between OBM's and WBM's.
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