The Use of Locally Sourced Ginger as Weighting Material in Drilling Mud

Abstract

A good mud program necessitates a successful Petroleum drilling
operation. Barite is the prevalent weighting material but there is
need to develop cheap local materials to substitute the use of Barite
as foreign materials are expensive. This paper investigates the
suitability of ginger, as an alternative weighting material in drilling
muds. API RP-13B standard procedures were employed throughout
the laboratory work to determine mud properties. Two mud samples
A and B were prepared which comprised fresh water, Q-Broxine,
bentonite and weighting material. The weighting materials were
added to the mud separately to form the required mud weight ranges
between 8.0 ppg and 11.0 ppg. Sample A was water-based mud with
foreign barite while Sample B was water-based mud with local
ginger. These samples were analyzed and the density, rheological
properties and sand contents were analyzed. At 8.0 ppg, the yield
point of ginger was 18.0 lb/100ft2 and barite 14.0 lb/100ft2 while the
10 second gel strength of ginger (Zingiber officinale) was 6.0
lb/100ft2 and 3.0 lb/100ft2 for barite. Similarly, little difference was
observed in plastic and apparent viscosities. At 8.0 ppg, the plastic
and apparent viscosities of ginger was13.0 cP and 22.0 cP while
barite was 12.0 cP and 19.0 cP