Page 361 - Practical Well Planning and Drilling Manual

Section 3 revised 11/00/bc 1/17/01 12:00 PM Page 337

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3.2

Drilling Fluid

Section 2.5 covers drilling fluid types and properties in detail. This
should be referred to as required. Maintenance of that mud on the rig
involves maintaining the programmed mud properties by various
chemical treatments and by using the solids control equipment to
remove detrimental drilled solids from the system.
Chemical mud maintenance and treatment is a large and special-
ized area, outside the scope of this book.

3.2.1. Solids Control

For rig site drilling engineers, a thorough understanding of the
mechanical processes and equipment used to remove undesirable
solids is necessary. The equipment is simple in principle, but in prac-
tice problems can sometimes be hard to diagnose. Drilling crews often
do not have a good understanding, and so it is essential for the rig
supervisors to check on the equipment and educate the drill crews so
that problems are spotted and solved early.

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