Drilling fluid additives are a type of additive that is very important to many different industries. These industries include recovery enhancement, recovery and transmission, water quality treatment, and the oil and gas drilling. Learn the different types of drilling fluid additives and some of their uses below.
Types
There are several different types of drilling fluid additives. Some of these include lubricants, shale inhibitors, weighting agents, reducing agents, and viscosity enhancers. All of these aid the drill in its ability to perform its function of drilling through mud and ground in order to reach the oil that is deep within the ground so it can be extracted.
Uses
There are many different uses for these additives, though two of the most common industries they are used in the oil and gas industry, particularly when drilling through mud and earth to reach where the oil is located.
These additives act as drilling mud performance modifiers when recovering oil. They help the drill to decompose the mud so that it can reach deep under the ground to retrieve the oil that is down there. These drilling mud chemicals also enable the drill to easily carry away rock chips while drilling, lubricate the drill bit so it does not break down as quickly, and to help facilitate easier drilling through the mud.
Without these additives, the drill would have to work much harder to break through the mud and create holes in it so oil can be extracted. In addition, if the drill has to work harder, it is likelier to break down quicker, which means that there would be more downtime, less drilling, and less extraction of oil, impacting many industries and consumers who rely on the timely extraction of oil.
