Vol. 13 No. 25-38 (2022): GREEN DRILLING: SUBSTITUTING TIGER NUT OIL FOR DIESEL AS BASE OIL IN DRILLING MUD FORMULATION

Due to the cost and environmental impacts associated with traditional diesel oil-based muds,

the utilization of alternative oils serving as a continuous phase in the formulation of drilling

muds has been at the forefront for mud engineers. To this end, this research work was

embarked on to compare the existing diesel oil-based muds with a newly formulated mud

using tiger nut oil. To achieve this aim, extracted tiger nut oil was used to formulate the

drilling mud in line with the American Petroleum Institute (API) standard of 25 g bentonite

to 350 mL base fluid for nontreated bentonite. The oil extraction method used was the

Soxhlet extraction method. 245 mL of tiger nut oil (which was the required volume for

formulation) was extracted from 1100 grams of tiger nut powder at the consumption of 1.5

L of n-hexane. The rheological properties that were deduced from the formulated mud were

in line with the Bingham plastic model of fluids. The formulated drilling fluid also displayed

great gel strength with respect to other types of base oils used in drilling mud formulation.

Also, with the addition of barite – a weighing substance, the mud density of the tiger nut OBM

(8.15 lb/gal) was higher relative to that of the diesel OBM (7.98 lb/gal) which is an

advantageous quality of drilling fluid, especially in less stable formations. Other properties

like pH, 8.5, CCI, and 2.03, were also in favour of the tiger nut OBM. Hence, the formulated

mud possesses a greater advantage both in technology utilization and environmental

viability.