The increasing environmental legislation surrounding drilling operations has led to a rapid rise in drilling waste management spending by operators. The traditional perception has been that this increased spending adds to well construction costs. While it true that new technology comes with a price tag, and much of the technology used in drilling waste management has been introduced in the last 10 years, many technologies now available to operators are clearly cost effective when the entire well construction cost is evaluated. The cost of making a mistake and having either an expensive remediation project or a potential liability nearly always significantly outweighs the cost of a good preventative drilling waste management program. Further, compliance ith current environmental regulations does not always guarantee immunity in the future. The correct deployment of both new and traditional drilling waste management technologies is reviewed in several case histories taken from the global operations of a major service company. The paper demonstrates that the correct application of these technologies combined with a holistic approach to drilling waste management and drilling fluid operations results in a net reduction in well construction costs and a reduction in the potential for environmental liability.
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