Oil Field Chemicals from Macromolecular Renewable Resources: Date Pit As a Case Study for Drilling Fluid Additive

The three important components of innovative fluid technologies in oil and gas drilling include reduction in drilling time, cutting down costs and maintaining complete environmental compliance by using environmental friendly fluids and equipment. Consequently, there is a growing need for the use of environmental friendly additives that will serve to mitigate and protect the environment for future generations and reduce the cost of drilling. Date pit is ready available naturally occurring multi-composite material which is a by-product of large scale industrial processes. It can be upgraded to value added product for oil well drilling and chemical EOR applications. The use of date pits as additives in water based drilling fluid was investigated. The effects of date pit fat content, particle size distribution (PSD) and date pit concentration on drilling fluids’ density, rheological properties, filtration properties and thermal stability was evaluated. The results showed that dispersion of particles lower than 75 µm into the WBDFs enhanced the shear thinning, gel strength and gave better fluid loss control properties. Consequently, date pit has the potential to be used as rheological modifier if used as smaller particles (such as nanoparticles). Furthermore, increased date pit concentration in the formulation resulted in decreased fluid density, reduced rheological properties but increased fluid loss control. Optimum fluid loss and filter cake thickness can be achieved by addition of certain weight percent of date pit to the drilling fluid formulation.