Solids Control and Waste Management

Our fluid separation and waste management solutions help you reduce your wellsite footprint by minimizing the creation of fluid and allowing you to reuse as much drilling fluid as possible.

NOV employee overseeing work at Solids Control Waste Management facility

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Solids Control and Waste Management

Minimizing the wellsite footprint has become increasingly important as rigs and wells have moved closer to sensitive environments. Our fluid separation experts and waste management solutions help our clients minimize the creation of fluid and reuse as much drilling fluid as possible. Our technologies decrease overall cuttings volume, and in some areas, we can treat cuttings so they can be safely disposed of onsite. This translates to decreased transportation costs and fewer trucks on the road.

The Solids Control and Waste Management services group is part of WellSite Services along with our BRANDT^TM products group, Managed Pressure Drilling, and Site Services—whose focus is servicing the wellbore and streamlining logistics at the wellsite. WellSite Services conducts operations in every part of the world that drilling and production take place.

Water Management

Water and hydrocarbon extraction typically go hand in hand. Where the operations lead us to extract or treat hydrocarbons we typically encounter water. WellSite Services has developed several systems and services to handle various types of contaminated or un-treated water. We understand the requirements for disposal and we can offer a comprehensive range of treatment solutions.

AQUA-VES
Offshore Slops Treatment
Water Transfer

Thermal Processing

An increase in global awareness of the need for environmental preservation has led the drilling industry to adapt to changes in environmental policies. National environmental laws are now being strictly enforced and companies must adapt their policies to abide by these regulations. The treatment of drill cuttings with thermal desorption provides an excellent option for meeting these standards. NOV has more than 20 years of experience in the thermal treatment of drill cuttings.

Offshore Waste Management

Managing drilling waste at any drill site adds a degree of complexity, but when you're tasked with managing drilling waste offshore, you need to have the experience and tools to always ensure environmental and regulatory compliance. Our solids control and waste management operations team can deliver a wide array of offshore waste treatment solutions for any offshore application.

Land Mud Plants

WellSite Services' expertise in constructing portable processing facilities also carries over in constructing LMP (liquid mud plants). Our plants are used to mix, dilute, treat, and adjust drilling muds for our customers operations. We have constructed LMP's all over the world, in both mild and harsh climates as well as urban and remote locations.

Several shipping containers near open water

Cuttings Reinjection

WellSite Services is the leading provider of cuttings re-injection services to the drilling industry. The technique of injecting drilling waste into a casing annulus has been used in the industry since 1986. Cuttings re-injection has since been used in other oilfield applications, such as production pit closure. This technique for the disposal of oilfield waste and drilled cuttings results in a zero discharge to the environment. It is the only field-proven, environmentally sound, cost-effective method for disposing of drilling waste and drilled cuttings at the rig site.

CRI – Automated Slurrification

Dewatering

Our dewatering services perform two vital functions. First, dewatering removes up to 99.5% of solids from unweighted drilling fluids, returning practically clear water. This is important to reduce hydrostatic fluid column pressures and increase rate of penetration. Second, dewatering significantly reduces waste volume for off-site removal and disposal. The dewatering system includes one or more decanting centrifuges, a polymer aging and injection system, and pH adjustment. Solids, in the form of a dry cake, fall into a catch tank for storage, testing, and handling before disposal. The clean liquid phase is either returned to the mixing tank or sent to a holding tank for preparation and discharge.

Land Closed-Loop

No matter the location, BRANDT™ provides complete solids control and waste management systems, including system design, equipment, commissioning, and operation. With extensive experience in successful closed-loop, zero-discharge operations and drilling-waste management, WellSite Services' Brandt Services group is the industry choice for closed-loop processing system.

Mud Cooling

Elevated and fluctuating downhole temperatures and pressures can negatively impact mud properties, hole cleaning, and critical downhole measurements and tool life while increasing overall mud costs and nonproductive time (NPT). BRANDT has developed a solution to overcome these challenges with our TUNDRA family of mud cooler and mud chillers.

Screw Conveyors

The BRANDT FreeFlow™ Positive Pressure Transfer System offers a safe, flexible, and innovative solution for the efficient transportation and storage of drill cuttings. The basic system components include an air conveyor, compressor, piping, and control system. The system can blow solids directly to a skip, storage vessel, or processing unit. Another option would be to process the cuttings with a dryer and use the air conveyor to transport the dried cuttings to a storage vessel.

Solids Control and Waste Management