Not every drilling job calls for bentonite. Premeasured polymer mixes can simplify short HDD runs.

With a wave of infrastructure funds coming, suppliers and buyers can ultimately help one another succeed.

Checklists, signs, leadership and training all feed into safety culture, buy-in from drill crews up to owners.

Many manufacturers and suppliers offer drilling fluids training that can have a direct effect on success rates.

Operators can calculate a rough time per rod once they know per-foot volume for the bore and pump speed.

Early polymer slurries struggled when drilling unconsolidated soils. Fluid-loss additives changed the game.

Don’t expect these common tools for testing fluids to have same results for high-solids, gelling mixes.

It helps if the whole company, from drillers to owners, knows the value of a good fluid for tricky, sticky geologies.

Changes to usability, suspension, dosage often driven by requests from HDD, other contractors in the field.