Page 370 - Practical Well Planning and Drilling Manual

Section 3 revised 11/00/bc 1/17/01 12:00 PM Page 346

[ ] Practical Wellsite Operations and Reporting
3.2.2

you may not want to remove the plastic earlier than necessary. These
may be done in conjunction with a ticket that states that a certain vol-
ume of mud was mixed but in reality a lesser amount was made up. If
the mud engineer is smart, the apparent mud mixed will equal what
would be mixed to include the nonexistent chemicals, so an audit later
will apparently balance. One mud engineer tried this trick on me, but
when he presented his job ticket for me to sign, it said he had mixed
600 bbls of reserve mud when the only tank he could have used was
400 bbls maximum capacity!
The biggest deterrent to mud chemical fraud is to take and test
samples regularly. Sample each batch of chemical that arrives. Take a 1
L sample of the mud each day which can be tested later, if necessary,
and return it to the shore base or a storage facility. Have someone inde-
pendent of the project witness covered pallets being opened or see it
for yourself. Knowledge that you are checking these things is a real
incentive to more honest reporting!

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