Drilling Waste Management and Control the Effects

Abstract

Petroleum is among the world’s most important natural resources. The production of petroleum involves the generation of drilling waste which forms a major source of pollution in oil producing environment. Almost every process in the finding and production of petroleum generates many types of wastes which impacts the environment negatively such as the generation and disposal of cuttings and excess drilling fluids. These materials are discharged overboard in offshore operations or buried when drilling in land-based locations. As an effort to manage and reduce the impact of drilling waste on the environment there have been a number of techniques. Technologies such as directional drilling, slim-hole drilling, coil-tubing drilling and pneumatic drilling are few of the drilling practices that generates less amount of drilling waste. In this we discuss the environmentally responsible actions that require an understanding of the types of wastes and how they are generated and also a number of drilling waste managing technologies of minimising and eliminating the effect of drilling waste on environment.