Drilling Waste Management Research Articles

Assessment of Effluent Recycling Process and Drilling Waste Management Procedure in Some Niger Delta States

The assessment of effluent recycling process and drilling waste management procedure in some Niger Delta States in Nigeria to identify ways to minimize cost in oil production, have been investigated. Niger Delta States are located in southern part of Nigeria, which are known to be the highest in crude oil production in Nigeria, however, the process of exploration and extracting of the oil also affects the ecosystem of that particular area. A comparative design was taken, which analysed various indices in the conventional methods of drilling waste management applied in a site in Edo State northern part of Nigeria, and comparing it to some modified methods employed in the wellhole locations in Imo State. The research was conducted in a wellhole site located in Ohaji Imo state, southern part of Nigeria, afterward, a correlation was drawn between the volume of generated waste and the drilling waste management, in order to develop a cost-effective model of waste management in the region. From the result obtained from the quantitative measures taken at the four drilling sites in Edo and Imo States, a significant reduction in waste volume of about 50% was observed, which therefore minimized the cost of drilling observed in Ohaji site, maybe as a result of the enhanced drilling design layouts using the effluent recycling method adopted in that location. The study therefore recommends the adoption of effluent recycling as a technique to be incorporated in the management of drilling waste during onshore petroleum development in the Niger Delta, among others, which would improve productivity.

A life cycle assessment of drilling waste management: a case study of oil and gas condensate field in the north of western Siberia, Russia

Oil production is currently impossible without drilling wells, so millions of tons of drilling waste contaminated with oil, chlorides, and heavy metals are generated every year in Russia alone. This article presents the results of a comparative life cycle assessment of water-based drill cuttings management technologies applied in Russia, including disposal, solidification, and reinjection. Life cycle assessment of the drilling waste management was performed using OpenLCA software, Ecoinvent 3.8 database and ReCiPe Midpoint (H) impact assessment method. Fossil depletion, climate change and human toxicity were chosen as impact categories. Data from oil producing companies on the composition of drilling waste and information from drilling waste treatment companies on the technologies and reagents used were also applied. To compare alternative technologies the following scenarios were compared: Scenario 0 «Landspraying», scenario 1 «Disposal», scenario 2 «Solidification» (scenario 2a – in a waste pit, scenario 2b – without a waste pit), and scenario 3 «Reinjection». Sensitivity analysis was performed to test for variations in results for oilfields located in different regions and for differences in mass of reagents used. The environmental impact of scenario 0 (landspraying) depends mostly on drilling waste composition, which is largely determined by human toxicity that can differ from 17 up to 2642 kg 1,4-DCB-eq per 1 t of drill cuttings, when for other scenarios it is from 24 up to 73 kg 1,4-DCB-eq per 1 t of drill cuttings. It means, that drilling waste landspraying is the best option only if the level of pollutants in the waste is very low. Among the other scenarios of drill cuttings management aimed at isolating pollutants from the environment, solidification technologies have the greatest environmental impact, primarily due to their use of binders. Among all scenarios, 2a and 2b have the biggest environmental effect in most impact categories. The production of cement and lime for drilling waste solidification was the main contributor to fossil depletion (64% of the total amount for scenario 2a and 54% for scenario 2b), and greenhouse gas emissions (49% of the total amount for scenario 2a and 70% for scenario 2b). However, the application of soil-like material (solidified drill cuttings) as an inert ground in swampy areas can make migration of heavy metals possible. Scenario 3 (reinjection) is associated with the least impact on the environment and the main contributor is electricity production (75% of greenhouse gas emissions). Sensitivity analysis shows that oilfield location does not affect the data for reinjection, but the impact assessment changes up to 60% for drill cutting disposal due to different waste pit design depending on permafrost and groundwater levels. Differences in the mass of used cement and lime change results for solidification scenarios considerably (up to 80%).

Совершенствование организационно- технологических схем обращения с отходами бурения

In the article the relevance is substantiated related to improving the organizational and technological schemes for handling of drilled cuttings of hydrocarbons of a polycomponent composition from the standpoint of improving the environmental safety of territories during the development and operation of oil and gas fields, as well as ensuring the industrial safety. Analysis of the existing drilled cuttings management systems is carried out, and the classification of their storage facilities is presented depending on the time, their location and on the waste management scheme to prevent flooding and waste spills due to emergencies. The requirements are given concerning the construction of temporary accumulators and sludge pits, as well as the conditions for classifying the waste management system as a pitless drilling method. The recommendations are proposed for choosing an accident-free organizational and technological scheme for handling of drilled cuttings, and measures to reduce the negative effect on the components of the environment during the accumulation and disposal of drilled cuttings. The features of accumulative drilling technology are considered, which provide for the accumulation of generated drilled cuttings in the temporary storage facilities with their subsequent processing, neutralization and (or) disposal without removal from the territory of the well construction/reconstruction site. The causes and consequences of emergency situations are presented. The implemented organizational and technological scheme of drilling waste management is presented using a logical and information model. Recommendations are given on the choice of an organizational and technological scheme for handling of drilled cuttings when improving the systems for managing the flow of drilled cuttings from the wells of hydrocarbons of the multicomponent composition, depending on the hazard class of drilled cuttings generated by the subsurface users, as well as the territories with environmental restrictions.

Case Study: Drill-Cuttings Treatment Alternatives—A Comparative Emissions Assessment

The offshore oil and gas industry has always been cognizant of its impact on the marine environment. The choices that operators make in how they operate, including the disposal of drill cuttings, must address an increasing number of environmental and climate targets in addition to those related to health, safety, and cost. As a typical well will produce approximately 1000 metric tons of oil-based drill cuttings, quantifying greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions associated with the disposal and treatment of drill cuttings has become an essential step to achieving net-zero ambitions. Since 1991 (1993 for fields in production), strict regulations relating to the discharge of oil-based drill cuttings have been in force under the OSPAR (Oslo/Paris) Convention. Those regulations banned the practice of discharge to sea of untreated oil-based drill cuttings and led to a situation where they were generally shipped to shore for treatment and disposal. In 2020, TWMA engaged DNV, the independent energy expert and assurance provider, to undertake a comparative study between the company’s offshore thermal drill-cuttings treatment solution and conventional alternatives including “skip and ship,” bulk transfer, and cuttings reinjection (CRI) used on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). It is the first paper to show a direct emissions comparison between offshore processing and alternative methods implemented. The study assessed the carbon dioxide (CO2) footprint and nitrogen dioxide (NOx) emissions for each of the different alternatives. The values were then used to create an interactive emissions calculator that can easily be applied to specific projects to clarify the actual potential for emissions reduction within the drilling waste management process. Background Technological improvements, as well as cost focus on existing solutions, have meant that offshore thermal drill-cuttings treatment has been widely adopted in many offshore basins as one of the safest and most cost-effective approaches. In Norway, which was the subject of the study, adoption of the technology has been slower than in other countries, with onshore thermal treatment of oil-based cuttings applied as the predominant technique, while some fields use offshore slurrification and injection into dedicated disposal wells. However, the cost of drilling new disposal wells and the track record of successful offshore thermal projects in other countries have improved the frame conditions for the use of offshore thermal treatment of cuttings on the NCS. It has also been demonstrated, in an earlier independent comparative study by Carbon Zero (SPE 207519), that the carbon footprint of skip and ship to shore of drill cuttings is 53% higher than that of drill-cuttings treatment at the wellsite (SPE 202639).

Remediation of oil-based drilling waste using the electrokinetic-Fenton method

The large amount of residues and pollutants left over from the drilling industry could cause irreparable damage by entering the human and animal food chain. Therefore, drilling waste management is of particular importance. Electrokinetic (EK) remediation is one of the methods used to remediate all types of soils contaminated with metal and organic pollutants, but the special conditions and properties of drilling wastes make the use of this method more complex for the treatment of this type of waste. In this study, by enhancing the EK method with Fenton technique, which is an advanced oxidation technique, and using copper and iron electrodes as anode, total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) were removed from the oil-based drilling waste. The best result in this study was obtained by reducing the initial concentration of TPH from 316,000 to 72,680 mg⁄kg in drilling waste. This 77 % reduction in TPH concentration was achieved using the EK method coupled with Fenton technique along with the use of copper electrode. The use of iron electrode in the EK-Fenton (EK-F) method improved the parameters affecting the removal efficiency and pollutants decomposition and resulted in 69.6 % TPH removal. These results show a 161 % (copper) and 136 % (iron) increase in TPH removal efficiency, respectively, compared to the conventional EK method, in which TPH removal was 29.4 %. These results indicate that the use of EK-Fenton method combined with copper electrode is effective in removing TPH from drilling waste. Overall, the promising results of the present study indicate that the enhanced EK technique could be considered as an effective and environmentally friendly approach for the drilling waste remediation.

Radiation-chemical Characteristics of Drilling Cuttings in Western Siberia and Modernization of the Drilling Waste Management System

The urgent character of modernization of the drilling waste management technologies from the standpoint of improving the environmental safety of territories during the oil and gas field development and operation was substantiated. The analysis of the existing drilling waste management methods was conducted and the classification of drilling waste ponds was presented. A layer-by-layer radiation-chemical analysis of drilling cuttings formed at the cluster drilling well in the Western Siberia (on the example of the Kustovoy field of "LUKOIL-Western Siberia", LLC) was conducted. A method for handling drilling waste, which is realized through the dosage batching of domestic-made reagents into a device for drill cuttings unloading from a drilling rig. The minimization of the secondary contamination threat is ensured by a more thorough mixing of the reagents with the waste, an increase in the contact time and the reaction completeness. The technology presented in the project allows preventing the formation of drilling waste, increasing the utilization depth and improving the technical requirements for the quality of the materials obtained.

Выбор технологий обращения с отходами бурения

Выбор технологий обращения с отходами бурения

Managing offshore drill cuttings waste for improved sustainability

Drill cuttings are an important waste from drilling operations due to the generated volume and the potential for environmental impacts. Alternatives for treatment and final disposal of these residues are available, with performance differing in multiple aspects, each impacting overall sustainability of existing technologies. Although procedures for comparing sustainability of processes are not new, for end-of-pipe technologies the common approach in the literature is the use of indicators that express the benefit of adding a waste management step. In this scenario, the work presents a methodology for sustainability analysis of solid waste management, adapted to specificities of drill cuttings, illustrated by a case study in the offshore Brazilian pre-salt area. Performance of a given technology is evaluated by integrating environmental, economic, safety and technical aspects in an original multi-criteria analysis. The evaluated waste management technologies are: offshore discharge, onshore disposal, offshore cuttings re-injection and microwave treatment followed by onshore disposal. Process inventories are compiled and support calculation of the proposed Sustainability Degree index for ranking of alternatives, which points to offshore discharge as the most sustainable among the evaluated technologies, followed by Microwave Treatment, Onshore Disposal and Offshore Re-injection. The methodology can indicate opportunities for technical optimization and contribute to the decision-making process on drilling waste management.

A CRITICAL REVIEW OF DRILLING WASTE MANAGEMENT TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS

Drilling waste management for oil and gas industry involves collection, transportation, processing, recycling, disposal, and monitoring of waste materials in order to reduce their effects on health and environment. In the Exploration and Production industry, environmental concerns have made effective management of drilling waste at well sites a great priority. Effective waste management is thus a key element in a successful drilling project. The industry therefore relies on effective expertise and newer technologies to maintain a balanced trade-off between healthy business activities and environmental effects. Over several decades, the industry has recorded remarkable progress in reducing the effects of drilling activities on the environment. The progressive development and adoption of sustainable drilling waste management protocols by operating and servicing companies have been partly responsible for this success. However, new challenges are emerging due to advances in drilling techniques such as extended reach wells, deep water drilling, multi-lateral drilling, and high-pressure wells. Recently, advanced drill waste treatment methods such as nanotechnology based approach, supercritical fluid extraction, and microwave treatment process have been explored and tested in the laboratory and on pilot scale to see if they can help overcome these challenges and increasingly stringent regulations. This paper reviews the shortcomings of the conventional approaches, their treatment technologies, advantages, and applications. This article enhances understanding of waste management and its treatment process based on sustainability concept. Researchers can find this review useful as an update on the state of drill waste management in the oil and gas industry. It can also serve as a useful guide to develop new rigorous sustainable models, protocols, and techniques to manage drilling waste using the noble concept.

Drilling Waste Management and Control the Effects

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.

Cluster analysis to evaluate chemical compounds in the waters of piezometers from a drilling wastes landfill

Storage of drilling wastes threatens the natural environment. Cluster analysis was employed for evaluation of the behaviour of chemical compounds in the water of piezometers from the drilling waste management facility in Luchow. Cluster analysis proved to be an efficient method, enabling the identification of groups of chemical compounds threatening the environment.

Managing Drilling Wastes: Detoxification of Two Formaldehyde-Releasing Biocides

Summary An increased awareness of the environmental impact and operational costs associated with freshwater usage and wastewater disposal in energy production has shifted industry interest toward replacing freshwater sources with lower-quality or recycled water in oilfield applications, and has highlighted the importance of addressing toxicity as part of a successful waste-management plan. Poor-quality and recycled waters often contain high concentrations of bacterial assemblages, which can cause operational challenges such as corrosion, slime formation, and souring. Microbial-control agents, such as biocides, are subsequently necessary to manage bacteriological problems. However, these chemicals are highly reactive and can react indiscriminately with biological targets, making their toxicity both a performance metric and an ecological, human-health, and disposal concern. The luminescent-bacteria toxicity test presented in this work, for instance, is a key regulatory parameter in the pumpoff and landspray disposal of drilling fluids in Alberta, Canada. Considering the necessary toxicity of biocides, controlled detoxification following use is a pertinent factor in responsible hazard management. Formaldehyde-releasing agents are the most widely used category of microbial-control additives that slowly and continuously release small amounts of formaldehyde, a toxic environmental pollutant and known human carcinogen. This research evaluated the acute (short-term) aquatic toxicity of two liquid formaldehyde-releasing biocides, identified necessary parameters for their detoxification, measured the resulting change in their toxicity over time, and used regulatory requirements for toxicity testing set by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) for drilling-waste management to evaluate the practical relevance of this detoxification to waste-management practices. The additives investigated were a tetrakis(hydroxymethyl)phosphonium sulfate (THPS)-based product, and a 1,3-dimethylol-5,5-dimethylhydantoin (DMDMH)-based product. Laboratory results suggest that the THPS-based additive was more toxic than the DMDMH-based additive on a percent volume basis, and pH was an important factor in THPS toxicity. Aeration alone decreased the toxicity of DMDMH over the course of the experiment, while a combination of aeration and pH increase were necessary to decrease the toxicity of THPS over the same time period. This work presents a proof of concept for a relatively simple and cost-effective detoxification of the evaluated additives, highlights the key parameters for this process, and uses toxicity-threshold levels referenced by the AER drilling-waste-management directive to evaluate their application in waste-assessment practices.

Selected aspects of drilling waste management in Poland

Selected aspects of drilling waste management in Poland

Management of Drilling Waste in an Environment and Economic Acceptable Manner

In upstream petroleum industry, one of the major operations that can potentially impact the environment is drilling. A major component of the wastes generated during drilling are the rock cuttings and the drilling fluids. The drilling fluids can have different chemical composition and various additives. Spilled or improperly disposed drilling wastes have the potential to harm plants and animals, and it should be managed to minimize risk to human health and the environment. The increasing environmental legislation surrounding drilling operations has led to a rapid rise in drilling waste management spending by operators. Managing wastes to minimize their harm potential to health and environment is the international concern and requires efficient management of wastes to reduce the environmental impacts. The management and control of waste which develops from the strategy can also have the beneficial effect of reducing the number of health related issues.This paper presents the waste management including recognizing the waste sources and methods which are used to minimize the impaction to environment and human health from drilling waste. This paper also reviews the strategy of drilling waste management which could reduce the number of health related issues as well as environment pollution.

A review of the current options for the treatment and safe disposal of drill cuttings

Drilling for the exploration and extraction of oil requires the use of drilling fluids which are continuously pumped down and returned carrying the rock phase that is extracted from the well. The potential environmental impacts of contaminated fluids from drilling operations have attracted increasing community awareness and scrutiny. This review article highlights current advances in the treatment of drill cuttings and compares the technologies in terms of cost, time and space requirements. Traditionally, a range of non-biological methods have been employed for the disposal of drill cuttings including burial pits, landfills and re-injection, chemical stabilization and solidification and thermal treatments such as incineration and thermal desorption. More recently, bioremediation has been successfully applied as a treatment process for cuttings. This review provides a current comparison of bioremediation technologies and non-biological technologies for the treatment of contaminated drill cuttings providing information on a number of factors that need to be taken into account when choosing the best technology for drilling waste management including the environmental risks associated with disposal of drilling wastes.

Life-Cycle Impact Assessment of oil drilling mud system in Algerian arid area

The objective of this work is to assess the environmental impacts of the drilling mud system in Algeria's arid region. Water-based mud (WBM) and oil-based mud (OBM) are used during well drilling in Hassi Messaoud petroleum field, and have a considerable pollution potential particularly on the aquifer system which constitutes the single resource of drinking water in the Sahara. The Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach is applied to evaluate the impacts of several drilling mud systems across all stages of their life cycle, e.g. use, treatment and disposal. Environmental impacts of five treatments scenarios corresponding to the drilling waste management applied in Hassi Messaoud are compared: reserve pit without treatment (burial option), secondary high centrifugation (vertical cuttings dryer), stabilisation/solidification online, stabilisation/solidification off line and thermal desorption. The impact assessment is carried on using the LCIA models of Impact 2002+ method in SIMAPRO7 software. This assessment identifies human toxicity and terrestrial eco-toxicity as the major impact categories in this specific arid context and quantifies the emissions contributions. The local environmental impact is the most important of the drilling mud life cycle and is mainly linked to emissions from reserve pits, treated cuttings, and drilling phase 16″ through the Turonian and Albian aquifer. The main contributing substances are aromatic hydrocarbons fraction and metals in particular barium, zinc, antimony, arsenic, and aluminium. Concerning the comparison of the treatment scenarios, it appears that stabilisation/solidification online is the best one; it has the lowest impact score in the two dominating categories because of the waste minimisation: mud storage avoided in the reserve pit. The second best scenario is the thermal desorption which obtains the lowest impact score in carcinogen effects due to hydrocarbons reduction (<1%) and avoided impacts of recovered oil. The toxic substances fate modeling will be improved by taking into account their site-specific impact.

Tar-Sands Drilling-Waste Management: A Clean Solution

This article, written by Assistant Technology Editor Karen Bybee, contains highlights of paper SPE 112368, "Tar Sands Drilling Waste Management: A Clean Solution," by C. Nilsen, SPE, K. McCosh, SPE, and M. Kapila, SPE, M-I SWACO, originally prepared for the 2008 IADC/SPE Drilling Conference, Orlando, Florida, 4-6 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed. The full-length paper presents novel technology for treatment of tar-sands drilling waste generated from steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) and other tar-sands drilling operations. The continuous treatment process is based on hot-water addition, mixing, and separation techniques to reduce the viscosity and specific gravity of the bitumen to separate it from the sand. Treatment of cuttings with light to heavy bitumen contamination has shown this treatment method to be a simple and effective means of producing clean sand and recovering the bitumen component. Introduction Tar sands are sandstone formations saturated with bitumen or heavy oil. The sandstone is thought to remain water-wet in the formation and can be unconsolidated, with the sand grains held together mainly by the bitumen. Alternatively, the sandstone can be consolidated, with silica or carbonate cement holding the sand together and bitumen filling the remaining voids. The bitumen deposits were formed in the geological past from crude oil that migrated to the surface of the Earth. Weathering and chemical and biological processes resulted in loss of the light fractions, leaving behind the very-viscous, solid or semisolid heavy fractions. Typically, bitumen has a density greater than 960 kg/m3. Over the millennia, weather and geologic action covered the semisolid bitumen with layers of soil, and today, most bitumen and heavy-oil production comes from deposits buried more than 400 m below the surface of the Earth. Bitumen deposits are found in more than 70 countries worldwide, but 75% occur in Canada and Venezuela. In Canada, most of the oil sands are located in three major areas in northern Alberta, which hold at least 175 billion bbl of recoverable bitumen. Where the heavy oil is thin it can be pumped out of the sands with progressing-cavity pumps (PCPs). To increase recovery, cold heavy-oil production with sand also is used in which sand is encouraged to enter the well by aggressive perforation and swabbing strategies. Removal of the sand with the heavy oil increases the formation permeability, expands the high-permeability zone as sand is produced, and prevents plugging of the near-wellbore region by asphaltenes or fines.

Effective Drilling-Waste Management Reduces Well-Construction Costs

This article, written by Assistant Technology Editor Karen Bybee, contains highlights of paper SPE 96775, "Drilling-Waste Management: Case Histories Demonstrate That Effective Drilling-Waste Management Can Reduce Overall Well-Construction Costs," by K. Browning, SPE, and S. Seaton, SPE, Halliburton Fluid Systems, prepared for the 2005 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Dallas, 9–12 October. The increasing amount of environmental legislation affecting drilling operations has resulted in a rapid increase in drilling-waste-management spending. While traditional perception is that this increased spending adds to well-construction costs, many technologies now available are cost-effective when the entire well-construction cost is evaluated. The full-length paper reviews deployment of both new and traditional drilling-waste-management technologies and demonstrates that correct application of these technologies can result in a reduction in well-construction costs. Introduction Although there are other waste products attributable to drilling operations, most waste-reduction efforts focus on drill cuttings and excess or spent drilling fluids as well as the treatment and/or disposal of these waste products in compliance with governing regulations for the area of operation. All costs associated with treatment and disposal usually are considered part of the overall well-construction costs. Evidence from the case histories presented demonstrates that appropriate waste management and technology applications actually can reduce rather than increase well-construction costs. Time Line Until the 1980s, there was little or no drilling-waste management as we know it today. In offshore operations, cuttings and excess fluid typically were discharged overboard and spread on the lease sites or buried in land operations. There was little, if any, legislation regarding disposal of these materials. Discharge and land spreading were low-cost solutions that allowed the operator to remain in compliance with existing regulations. Consequently, the actual amount of waste generated and subsequently disposed of was of little consequence to the operator or service company. New Regulations. In the 1980s and early 1990s, because of increased global awareness and understanding of environmental issues, the effects of drilling operations and in particular drilling waste became a subject of interest to operators, service companies, and regulators. Early regulations typically restricted what could be disposed of by setting limits on oil or chloride content or the location of disposal sites. The fluid types used also came under closer scrutiny, and fluid and cuttings toxicity was evaluated and regulated. Costs. The new regulations inevitably affected well-construction costs. Fluid selection and cuttings treatment and disposal incurred a cost increase associated with meeting new regulations. The quantity of waste generated received increased attention, and source reduction became one of the pillars of waste management. The initial cost of switching to less-toxic additives, such as switching from diesel to a mineral oil, or reducing oil-on-cuttings by improving solids-control performance or using cuttings fixation or other simple waste-management techniques available at the time, still represented a very small percentage of the total fluids costs and an even smaller percentage of total well-construction costs.

Overview: Health, Safety and Environment (July 2005)

It is a real challenge to summarize the three disciplines of health, safety, and environment (HSE) in just half a page. All three have important roles in the petroleum world, yet they are vastly different. Specialists in one discipline may know little about the other disciplines. Unlike most other JPT topics, regulatory issues contribute significantly to management of HSE. In March, professionals from many countries gathered in Galveston, Texas, for the biennial SPE/EPA/DOE Exploration and Production Environmental Conference. Most of the papers featured here, along with numerous other interesting papers, were presented at that meeting. This year, the conference included additional discussion on safety and security. The process of finding and producing oil and gas and bringing products to market produces many effects on the air, water, and land, as well as on plants, humans, and animals. The industry has made great strides in the past few decades through technology development and pressures from governments. Yet the public does not perceive this industry as being a “clean” industry; we have a long way to go to improve both reality and perception. Regulatory initiatives and public pressure will force new developments in managing drilling wastes, produced water, and air emissions, among other industry byproducts. The oil and gas industry has opportunities to use its vast skills and impressive technological capabilities to help society meet other health and environmental needs. Two examples that readily come to mind are injection of carbon dioxide for enhanced recovery or for permanent sequestration and treatment of produced water for beneficial reuse in arid areas. Finally, we must remember that the men and women in this industry frequently work in extreme environments and with complicated and potentially dangerous equipment. Accident rates and fatalities continue to be higher for the E&amp;P sector than for other heavy-industry sectors. It is critical to improve the safety of oil and gas operations to protect our work force. Many challenges remain in HSE. Available from the SPE eLibrary: www.spe.org SPE 94476 - “Cost-Effective Treatment of Barium from Coalbed-Natural-Gas Produced Water,” by J.T. Cline, SPE, Anadarko Petroleum Co. SPE 93796 - “Environmental Regulatory Framework in Europe: An Update,” by E. Garland, SPE, Total SPE 88673 - “Comprehensive Solutions to Drilling-Waste Management,” by Abdullah Al-Suwaidi, ADCO, et al. SPE 94371 - “Increased Access to Federal Lands Through Data Sharing,” by S.D. Belieu, SPE, Nebraska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, et al. SPE 94177 - “Potential Nontraditional Uses of Byproduct E&amp;P Produced Sulfur in Kazakhstan,” by P.W. Beall, Battelle Memorial Inst., et al.

Drilling Waste Management

This article, written by Assistant Technology Editor Karen Bybee, contains highlights of paper SPE 77388, "Drilling Waste Management: Past, Present, and Future," by John A. Veil, SPE, Argonne Natl. Laboratory, originally presented at the 2002 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio, Texas, 29 September-2 October.