An Eco-Friendly Fluid Loss Control Additive for Water-Based Bentonite Drilling Fluid: Orange Peel Waste

Abstract

Drilling fluid performs a crucial function in petroleum drilling operations. This functional fluid improves the performance of the drilling process by controlling bottom hole pressure, wellbore stability, and cleaning the hole. Circulation fluid loss frequently occurs during drilling, leading to several costly problems, such as formation damage and wellbore instability. This study investigates the potential of utilizing orange peel waste as an environmentally friendly and cheap additive to enhance the characteristics of the bentonite drilling fluid. Laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate the impact of orange peel powder addition into the filtration fluid of drilling fluid with various concentrations (0, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2, 0.25, and 0.5 % by weight). Following American Petroleum Institute (API) guidelines, their rheological and filtration characteristics were measured at room conditions. The results stated that adding orange peel powder significantly improves the fluid loss control ability. By increasing the orange peel powder amount, the API filtration volume decreased up to 18.18 % as compared to the bentonite drilling fluid without orange peel powder addition.