ADCO’s Drilling waste management system towards zero waste disposals

摘要

Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO) have taken strong rule and commitment towards environment in Abu Dhabi Emirate, U.A.E. Along with people’s safety and health; sustainable environment is one of the most powerful core value in ADCO’s business and operations. Safe disposal of the wastes generated by drilling the wells is one of the biggest challenges which the drilling division faces in ADCO. Not only that, but also it took the leader to be above the standards of the government rules in terms of “NO” spills of any waste generated through its drastically drilling operations. In Drilling operations, ADCO uses two types of mud to drill the wells, oil base mud (OBM) and water base mud (WBM). Even though WBM is not harmful to the environment, but ADCO’s practices is to segregate and separate this type of mud to dispose it safely into deep formations through special wells called disposal wells. Furthermore, the cuttings associated with the mud are transferred out from the sensitive environments if it has more than 16,000 ppm salinity. On the other side, the OBM and OBM cuttings treatment management have complied 100% with the recovery system in the drilling division through out the reusing of the OBM and cuttings drying (thermal processing) to recover the cuttings associated with the OBM. It have been shown that the waste management system in place in ADCO Drilling have resulted in zero waste disposals on the ground, and no pollutions have been detected through the large numbers of wells which have been drilled inland.