This month’s issue of National Driller focuses on rig maintenance and mud pumps. An important step in maintaining and protecting drilling tools and mud pumps is having a good mud program. This involves using the correct products for the drilling application and using these products in the way the manufacturer designed them to be used. This article will focus on products available for drilling and the correct way to use them.
Many of the drilling products used in the industry today have been around for a long time and are familiar to many contractors. It appears, though, from questions and calls we get as bentonite drilling fluid manufacturers, that sometimes some of these products and their applications are forgotten and a memory refresher is needed. There are also new products always appearing in the industry and those need to be noted as well.