Publications

With over 300 wells drilled a year and a huge volume of drilling waste, effective waste managment can be as challenging as the drilling operations. PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia (PT CPI) has dedicated significant resources to manage drilling wastes for compliance and operational efficiencies.PT CPI has developed a significant data base of information supporting water based fluids (WBF) in terms of drilling results and cost effectiveness. CPI uses a central mud treating facility (CMTF) to process the drilling waste fluid and discharges the water effluent into public canals, having met current Goverment of Indonesia laws under KepMENLH/42/MENLH/1996. The cuttings are burried on site after the liquid portion of the waste is sent to the CMTF. However, the CMTF facilities are operating at capacity and with growing community resistance to additional CMTF facilities, CPI is actively evaluating alternative mud processing technologies.After assessing several types of treatments, a selfcontained mobile on-site waste treatment unit was selected as most suitable for processing CPI drilling wastes. The small footprint unit fits well onto small locations, does not require additional rig equipment to deploy, provides continuous mud waste processing at 500 bbls per day, with processing costs competetive with current practices and with effluents meeting GOI environmental standards for discharge into canals and the environment. A 12 well pilot test proved the process to be effective and CPI is currently contracting for additional units with a greater throughput.