Clarifying the Palm-Based Drilling Fluids Potentials

With the goal of increasing awareness of toxicity level and environmental impact of drilling fluid, and for providing continuous findings for a better drilling fluid formulation, an experimental work based on a rheological evaluation of drilling fluid was carried out. The use of palm-based and palm oil-based as an alternative base component in drilling fluid formulation have been explored in terms of sand content, pH, viscosity, yield point and gel strength. Standard laboratory formulation including distilled water, sodium hydroxide, bentonite, barite and 1,2-propylene glycol were used in this study. Tests conducted on palm-based drilling fluid with properties of 17.0 ppg and 80/20 oil-water ratio revealed that palm methyl ester C14 and palm kernel oil have sand content of less than 0.5 % vol. with excellent thermal resistance on high temperature for palm kernel oil based.