Progress, Development Trends, and Outlook for Drilling Environmental Protection Technologies in the Shengli Oilfield

In order to solve the problems resulting from high levels of waste and and environmental pollution risk in the drilling process in the Shengli Oilfield, a series of high-temperature resistant environment-friendly drilling fluids were developed, forming a set of environmental protection technologies. They include an integrated drilling fluid treatment while drilling, the resource utilization of waste drilling fluids, and the harmless disposal of discarded cuttings. The field practice of these technologies in the Shengli Oilfield and Xinjiang Oilfield demonstrated that the integrated application of the newly developed technologies clearly contributed to the protection of the environment. Further, the applications resolved the conflict between environmental protection and the optimal use of drilling fluids, The new process resulted in a significant reduction of the total amount of drilling wastes and pollution risk, which allowed the project to achieve their stated goal of improved " source design, process control, and end treatment” for drilling wastes. According to the positive results of the studies, these technologies have made preliminary achievements in the aspects of " green” drilling, efficient implementation and sustainable development, they demonstrate that they possess good practical significance. Combined with the actual problems faced by the current development of environmental protection technology, the development trends of the drilling environmental protection technologies in the Shengli Oilfield shall focus on real-time and more economical drilling waste pretreatment technology, miniaturized and intelligent treatment equipment, drilling waste resource utilization technology, and more.