Study the suitability of neem seed oil for formulation of eco-friendly oil based drilling fluid

Abstract The present work intended to develop an invert emulsion drilling mud from biodegradable neem seed oil as an alternative to conventional diesel-based drilling mud. This would present comparable properties and performances with API standard requirements, ecologically friendly and at a low cost. Biodiesel produced from non-edible neem oil was used as the continuous phase in an invert emulsion-based drilling mud. Different tests to investigate the applicability of the mud for drilling applications were conducted. The rheological and lubricity tests results indicate that the neem oil biodiesel-based drilling muds are comparable with conventional diesel-based drilling muds. The produced biodiesel shows a significantly better flash point of 168 °C than the traditional diesel flash point of 70 °C; indicating better fire safety than the conventional diesel. The lubricity and rheological data indicate the formulated mud with neem seed oil biodiesel fair reasonably well with conventional diesel and within the API requirements. In general, the preliminary results show that neem oil biodiesel is a potential alternative to conventional organic oil in formulating oil-based drilling mud in terms of technical and environmental analysis.