Interesting Stat on drilling waste management

According to the report from related department, An interesting stat came out of the Drilling Waste Forum in Abu Dhabi which was that on avg 0.37kg of drilling waste is generated per bbl of oil produced.

That Means, if worldwide daily production is around 1m bbls a day then this equates to an enormous 370 mT of waste that is generated PER DAY! Key message that was delivered at the conference for the Operators - make sure you have a robust drilling waste management plan (DWM). This needs as much forward planning as any other element of the drilling campaign.

Unfortunately for most medium to small operators, when outside of the western world sphere of influence lose sight of this fact when planning their drilling campaigns. The costs associated with waste control are raising quickly with more and more environmental rulings being implemented in many countries but it appears that explorers these days have taken a reactive stance rather than a proactive approach to this issue.

Maybe someone would say that number is way low. think for a while on the fact that worldwide crude oil production is 76 million bbl/day ,which if I did the math right at 0.37kg/bbl , oil produced is only 68000 bbl of wet cuttings produced each day

Obviously, you may ask that who made this calculation?

The figures of volumes of bbl's produced worldwide was an example. The figure that we as an industry need to be acutely aware of is that for every bbl we produce 0.37kg of waste is generated which needs to have a plan on how to deal with it before we spud - not after!

So ,what`s the most important is that both calculations should be taken into consideration at the planning stages, too often finance looks at immediate costs and forgets risk and future cost. Finance must contribute in a positive manner for the entire length of the project, looking at all aspects and being proactive along with the HSE department to ensure risks are covered.