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Application of Drill Mud and Cutting Reinjection in Tangguh Project

Proceedings Title : Proc. Indon. Petrol. Assoc., 33rd Ann. Conv., 2009

Bintuni Bay in Papua Barat province where Tangguh drilling activities are performed is a sensitive area. The bay is surrounded by protected mangrove species and is home to marine mammals species including the sousa dolphins, a protected species under Indonesian regulations and red listed under IUCN. The bay water is also important for subsistence fishery to the local indigenous communities. If Tangguh followed the ",business as usual", practice, as is the accepted method for oil and gas activities in Indonesia and approved in the project AMDAL, the mud and cuttings resulting from drilling activities would have been discharged overboard into Bintuni Bay. The potential perceived or actual impacts from discharge would include bay water pollution, with secondary impacts to fishery and marine mammals, and cuttings build-up around the jack-up legs. There are also risks of potential future liability for the disposed mud and cutting, potential reputation impacts and social issues with subsistence fishing by indigenous people in the Bintuni area. Tangguh studied all available options for the management of mud and cuttings resulting from drilling activities, by assessing the strengths and weaknesses from technical, economical and environmental perspectives of each option, and concluded that protection of Bintuni Bays sensitive environment is of paramount importance to the success of the Project. Mud and cuttings generated from the drilling of 15 gas production wells is now managed in such a way so as not to damage this sensitive environment. Mud and cutting reinjection as preferred option in the approved AMDAL has been applied to minimise discharge into the bay. Drill cutting reinjection (DCRI) provides ",from cradle to the grave", solution. Mud and cuttings has been successfully reinjected back to where it originated. Discharge into the bay water is significantly reduced to the first well and top-hole sections of subsequent wells where water-based mud are used. The application of DCRI has significantly reduced potential environmental impacts resulted from the traditional discharge option.

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