STUDY ON CASTOR OIL AS OIL BASED FLUID IN DRILLING OPERATION

Drilling fluid is a critical component in the drilling process, where it provides the
gel to efficiently lift cuttings, maintain stable wellbore and produce sufficient
hydrostatic pressure that could prevent the influx of formation fluids into the
wellbore. The usage of diesel oil as the continuous phase of drilling fluid is
harmful to the environment especially marine environment in offshore drilling
operation. Therefore, various bio-diesel oils had been introduced to replace the
diesel oil.
Types of drilling fluid used in this project are oil based mud and synthetic based
mud. The biodiesel oils (Castor oil and Palm Oil) are used as oil phase in oil based
mud and mineral oil (Saraline) is used as synthetic fluid in synthetic based mud.
This project is mainly to identify whether Castor oil can be used as an alternative
for biodiesel oil to replace diesel oil in oil based mud by examining the rheological
properties and elastomeric effect of the muds.