Neutralizing drilling waste

Neutralizing drilling waste 

"Octopus" JSC provides services for the development of environmentally safe and cost-effective ways to neutralize drilling wastes (DW) with the implementation of pilot-industrial tests and laboratory tests on the technical specifications of customers.

The final result of the work performed is a set of documents: technical conditions (TU) for neutralized material, chemical safety product certificate, technological regulations (TR).

As an example, the appendix contains copies of normative documents developed by “Octopus”JSC on behalf of “Gazprom dobycha Astrakhan” LLC (contract No. 426 for performing R&D dated November 21, 2013).

When implementing measures for the processing of oil and gas waste, the following is taken into account: the variety of waste types, the instability of their composition and properties, the volume of oil generation, drilling technology, local climate conditions, and the requirements of existing environmental acts in the Russian Federation.

The use of the technology developed by “Octopus” JSC allows it to neutralize all types of drilling wastes generated by the use of various drilling fluids, fr om simple clay drilling mud and up to complex hydrocarbon ones. It is aimed at reducing the negative impact on the environment, including human health, as well as at reducing economic costs when dealing with DW (use of locally produced sorbents in the hardening composition, the possibility of a pitless process for processing DW, the processing of DW in the area of wells, the reduction of payments for waste disposal, and the use of products by the subsoil user of processing DW as secondary material resources).

The technology provides:

- collection of drilling wastes (from the sludge collector or directly from the drilling site);

-washing of salt-bearing drill cuttings from salts, multistage cleaning of the obtained brine, mixing of drill cuttings in certain proportions with curing composition (TU 5711-002- 48075906-2009, patent for invention No. 2387689 of 11.01.2009) in a special unit. Weakly mineralized DW are cured without washing directly on the territory adjacent to the well at the mobile inertization complex; 

- removal of the neutralized mixture to the destination.

The resulting cured mixture, according to TU 5711-003-48075906, developed by "Octopus" JSC, is a man-made soil, corresponding to the IV-V hazard class, which can be used for removal of the terrain relief, when constructing insulating screens, for reclamation of barrow pits, construction of roads and other types of work, wh ere traditionally natural soils are used.

Clarified refined brine can be reused for the preparation of drilling fluids or disposed of in two ways: I - injection into lost circulation horizons, II - the direction to natural evaporators (annual storages).

All types of work are regulated by the License for the implementation of this activity, received by the enterprise in accordance with the established procedure.

5 published articles are devoted to neutralization of DW: 

1. D.V. Ponomarenko, V.G. Yashchenko, S.N. Perevalov "Waste or raw materials: a new vision of the old problem";

2. Perevalov S.N., Ivleva A.A. "Topical technologies and methods of neutralizаtion of  drilling waste";

3. L.V. Malinovskaya, S.N. Perevalov "Comprehensive approach to neutralization of highly mineralized drilling waste";

4. L.V. Malinovskaya, S.N. Perevalov "Ecologically safe and cost-effective way of neutralizing highly mineralized drilling waste";

5. S.N. Perevalov, L.V. Malinovskaya "A way of clarifying contaminated brines formed during the washing of highly mineralized drilling wastes".