RESEARCH STUDY ON FINDING A NEW SYNTHETIC OIL BASED MUD FROM ORGANIC MATERIAL (METHYL ESTER OF CASTOR OIL)

Oil based mud is a fluid used in modern day drilling. It is preferred compared to water based mud because it can be used in high pressure high temperature wells, doesn’t react with clay formations, provides better wellbore stability and reduces differential sticking in the hole. Though it has a lot of it benefits, its negative points are known for its high initial costs and harmful towards the environment. Nevertheless the use of oil based mud is proved harmful to the environment, it is still being used with the help of solids control and drilling waste management’s technology which leads to high cost of maintaining the mud. The need of drilling fluid to be environmentally friendly is important in the sense of not being harmful to the environment and reducing the cost impact. The study would be on developing a synthetic base mud using organic biodegradable based oil where methyl ester of castor oil will be used for this study. The final outcome expected is to have a synthetic based mud which is less harmful to the environment and user while competent with the current’s market base oil’s synthetic based mud. The study will be done in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS’s lab and Scomi Global Research and Training Centre (GRTC) depending on availability of tools and technology.