Abstract
Successful drilling operations are dependent on the properties of the drilling fluid used to drill wells. Barite is used as a weighting agent during the preparation of drilling fluid. Over the years, oil and gas industry in Nigeria has been depending mainly on imported barite for drilling operations, whereas the country has huge deposits of barite. There is the need to assess the properties of the locally sourced barite for their suitability in drilling fluid formulation. This study presents the local processing methods of barite and examines the crude and on-the-site processed barite’s physio-chemical properties. These parameters were compared with American Petroleum Institute and Department of Petroleum Resources standards. XRD results show that on-the-site beneficiated barite has 87.79% BaSO4, 6.66% silica, 0.03% total soluble salt, 1.39% Fe2O3, and 1.603% heavy metals. Chemical analysis indicated that the pH, moisture content, metallic content such as Ca, Pb, Zn, Mg, Cu, and Cd minerals, and extractable carbonates were within the standard specified for usage as a drilling fluid weighting agent. The analysed crude barite samples were basic, within the pH of 8.3 and 8.6. Locally processed barite has lower Fe, Pb, Cd, and Cu content compared to industrially accepted barite. The specific gravity increased from 4.02 ± 0.07 to 4.15 ± 0.13, and the hardness reduced potentially from 5 Mohr to 3.5 Mohr on the hardness scale. The amount of impurities was sufficiently low, and the specific gravity of the samples improved to meet the needs of any drilling operation and compare favourably with industrially accepted barite.
Highlights
Over 80% of barite produced worldwide is used as a weighting agent in drilling fluids
The efficiency of the onsite beneficiation process adopted in Torkula barite field clearly justifies the upgrading of materials characteristics
The potential of hydrogen (pH) of the Torkula barite is within the operational pH and the standard range for a weighting agent, as recommended by the American Petroleum Institute
Summary
Over 80% of barite produced worldwide is used as a weighting agent in drilling fluids. World barite resources are about 2 billion tons, but only 740 million metric tons have been identified. India, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Thailand, USA, Turkey and other countries produced 9.5 million metric tons in 2018 which worth 2688 million US dollars. Barite is used for drilling and other industrial application around the world (Garside 2020; Research Drive 2020; USGS 2017, 2019). Nigeria in Africa, currently holds the fourth largest deposits of barite in the world with an estimated reserve of over 21 million metric tons. The nation is not anywhere in the list of globally recognized largest producers USGS of barite for drilling activities and other industrial applications (Garside 2020; USGS 2020). Principal factors responsible for this include the unregulated importation of unprocessed barite ore, limited access to mining site and high-quality barite ore grade, the absence of mechanized mining companies, unregulated artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) activities, and lack of industry-institution-government
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