Drilling Waste Management Plans for Exploration and Production Operations in Iran

Abstract

Abstract More than 200 wells are drilled in Iran for exploration and development operations every year. These drilling operations would annually generate millions of barrels of wastes that has become a main problem for the major operators and their future liabilities. Also, the total well construction cost increases by increasing environmental restriction every year. For many years, traditional drilling fluids and solids control equipment have been used and there has not been any drilling waste management strategy to minimize the wastes. In addition, traditional disposal options are used at the site without any treatments or practices before discharge of the wastes. Today, operators are looking for implementing cost effective waste management practices and treatments to meet the environmental requirements in Iran. This paper will introduce a drilling waste management plan with operational practices for waste minimization, re-cycling and disposal by considering the environmental legislation and the economy of the drilling operations. Also, operational requirements will be discussed for treating drilling fluids wastes and contaminated cuttings with the instruction for measuring generated waste. In conclusion, implementing new technologies for drilling waste management requires long term goals for operators with environmental and economical investigations to keep them in compliance with current regulations. It should be considered that monitoring and reviewing the waste management practices can improve the performance of the designed plan for a country such as Iran with consecutive increase in drilling operations.