Do you own a solids control unit or a very expensive mud pit on wheels? I ask this question because I encounter both on jobsites regularly. Not only do I see them in person, but I reply to calls and emails daily on cleaning issues. I love those calls and please, keep them coming. Throughout my career, I have worked on mud cleaners and solids control units in many diverse locations, from assisting Ortman Drilling on the first drilling phase of Ball State University’s geothermal project to wireline coring projects on both sides of the Atacama Desert, southern Peru and northern Chile. Regardless of the geographic location, the rule of solids control is always the same: Success to any method of solids control is achieved when cuttings are kept intact from bit to surface. I believe in that rule so much that National Driller invited me to host their first webinar for their new Drill-EDU program. The title is “Solids Control Methods, Selection & Execution,” and in the course of an hour we will cover basic to advanced solids control best practices, and finish with fluid disposal.
So what happened to our solids control system between cleaning and becoming an overpriced mud vibrator? The answer is simple: solids happened! Big solids turn into little solids while moving uphole and the little solids are broken down to fine solids while pumped from the pit to scalping screen. In reality, I lied when I said, “Success … is achieved when cuttings are kept intact from bit to surface.” Keeping the solids intact is just one step in the process of solids control. Real success comes from maintaining an efficiently operating solids control system that is processing solids and providing a low-solids drilling fluid. Trouble starts with recirculating solids back downhole. Failure happens when the solids control system becomes a pit of unusable solids-laden mud. The only way to stay successful is to monitor your drilling fluids properties with a slurry test kit. If you do not know the properties of the fluids on the surface and the fluids going back downhole, you can never understand your success or failure. Contact your local mud engineer to understand your specific fluid properties better.