https://scdrilltech.com/ Field engineering on solids control, drilling fluids and drilling-waste management — from 26+ years on the rig. en Fri, 19 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://scdrilltech.com/articles/removal-efficiency.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/removal-efficiency.html Solids Control Fri, 19 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Drilled-solids removal efficiency — written η (eta) — is the single most useful number in solids control. It answers the one question that quietly decides… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/hydrocyclone-feed-head.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/hydrocyclone-feed-head.html Equipment Thu, 18 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Hydrocyclones — desanders and desilters — are the only major piece of solids-control equipment with no moving parts. They run entirely on geometry and… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/cutting-dilution-cost.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/cutting-dilution-cost.html Economics Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Most solids-control losses are invisible because the system never stops running. Nothing trips, nothing leaks onto the deck — the dilution rate just sits… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/high-speed-dewatering-vs-barite-recovery.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/high-speed-dewatering-vs-barite-recovery.html Centrifuge Tue, 16 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 A decanting centrifuge is the most flexible machine on the solids-control train — and the most often mis-set. It can perform two almost opposite jobs, and… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/drilling-waste-management-mistakes.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/drilling-waste-management-mistakes.html DWM Mon, 15 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Drilling waste management is where solids control meets the environment — and the budget. The hardware is well understood, yet the same avoidable mistakes… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/reading-a-shaker.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/reading-a-shaker.html Method Sun, 14 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Pick a shaker screen by “mesh” alone and you are guessing. Mesh count never described what a screen actually does to the fluid, and two screens with the same… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/low-gravity-solids-and-dilution.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/low-gravity-solids-and-dilution.html Drilling Fluids Sat, 13 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Every problem solids control exists to solve comes down to one quantity: low-gravity solids (LGS) — the drilled formation rock that ends up suspended in the… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/the-pit-train-in-order.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/the-pit-train-in-order.html Equipment Fri, 12 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 You can buy the best shakers, the sharpest cones and the biggest centrifuge on the market and still run a poor solids-control system — if they are plumbed in… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/cuttings-dryers.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/cuttings-dryers.html DWM Thu, 11 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 On an oil- or synthetic-based-mud well, the cuttings dryer is usually the single biggest lever on both fluid cost and waste volume. Every percent of fluid… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/drilling-waste-environmental-compliance.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/drilling-waste-environmental-compliance.html Compliance Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Environmental compliance used to be paperwork the HSE department handled after the well was drilled. It isn’t any more. Discharge limits, zero-discharge… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/efficiency-that-keeps-the-bit-turning.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/efficiency-that-keeps-the-bit-turning.html Performance Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Solids control is often filed under “cost centre” — equipment you run because you have to. That framing is backwards. A clean active system is one of the… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/the-history-of-solids-control.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/the-history-of-solids-control.html History Mon, 08 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Most people assume solids control started on a drilling rig. It didn’t. The equipment standing on your shaker deck today is the end of a long chain of… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/why-centrifuges-fail.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/why-centrifuges-fail.html Centrifuge Sun, 07 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 The decanting centrifuge is the most capable machine on the solids-control train and the one most likely to be running hurt. It is the only stage that can… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/the-sand-content-test.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/the-sand-content-test.html Method Sat, 06 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 The sand content test is the cheapest, fastest measurement in the entire mud-check kit — a glass tube, a 200-mesh sieve, a wash bottle, and about five… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/marsh-funnel-viscosity.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/marsh-funnel-viscosity.html Drilling Fluids Fri, 05 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 The Marsh funnel is the most-used and most-misunderstood instrument on the rig. It is quick, rugged and needs no power, so it gets read every tour and quoted… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/shaker-motion-and-g-force.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/shaker-motion-and-g-force.html Equipment Thu, 04 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Two shakers can carry identical API RP 13C screens and perform completely differently — because the screen only decides what size gets cut, while the… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/the-daily-solids-control-report.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/the-daily-solids-control-report.html Method Wed, 03 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Most solids-control losses are invisible not because they are hard to see, but because no one is writing them down. A separation train can drift for an… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/desanders-and-desilters.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/desanders-and-desilters.html Equipment Tue, 02 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Desanders and desilters are the same machine at two sizes. Both are banks of hydrocyclones — cones with no moving parts that separate purely on geometry and… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/the-degasser.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/the-degasser.html Equipment Mon, 01 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Of all the equipment in the pit room, the degasser is the one most likely to be misunderstood as “a well-control tool that lives near solids… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/dewatering-chemistry.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/dewatering-chemistry.html DWM Sun, 31 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000 A dewatering unit is only as good as the chemistry feeding it. The centrifuge, the filter press, the whole skid — none of them can capture the ultra-fine,… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/microns-mesh-and-cut-points.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/microns-mesh-and-cut-points.html Method Sat, 30 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Strip solids control down to one sentence and it is this: sorting particles by size, and removing each one as early as the size allows. Every screen label,… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/tanks-agitation-and-turnover.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/tanks-agitation-and-turnover.html Equipment Fri, 29 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Spend on the best shakers, cones and centrifuge on the market and you can still run a poor solids-control system — if the tanks behind them are arranged or… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/centrifuge-capacity-and-run-hours.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/centrifuge-capacity-and-run-hours.html Centrifuge Thu, 28 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000 A decanting centrifuge that sits idle while dilution climbs is one of the most common and least-noticed losses in solids control. The machine is on the deck,… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/closed-loop-and-zero-discharge.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/closed-loop-and-zero-discharge.html DWM Wed, 27 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000 A closed-loop system removes the one thing solids control has always quietly leaned on: the reserve pit. With no earthen pit to absorb mistakes, every barrel… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/mud-weight-barite-and-sag.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/mud-weight-barite-and-sag.html Drilling Fluids Tue, 26 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Solids control spends most of its attention on the solids it wants out — but it has an equally important duty to protect the solid it wants to keep in :… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/retention-on-cuttings-roc.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/retention-on-cuttings-roc.html Method Mon, 25 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Retention on cuttings (ROC) is the mass of fluid clinging to discharged solids after the separation train has done its work. On a non-aqueous well it is the… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/the-mud-cleaner.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/the-mud-cleaner.html Equipment Sun, 24 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000 On a weighted mud, a bank of desilters becomes a liability: barite is ground to pass 200 mesh (~74 µm and finer), squarely in the desilter cut range. Run… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/cuttings-re-injection-cri.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/cuttings-re-injection-cri.html DWM Sat, 23 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Cuttings re-injection (CRI) takes drilling waste, converts it into a pumpable slurry, and injects it under pressure into a permeable formation — either the… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/the-solids-control-rig-audit.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/the-solids-control-rig-audit.html Method Fri, 22 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000 A solids-control audit is a systematic inspection of the entire surface separation train — equipment condition, settings, plumbing and operating data —… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/plastic-viscosity-yield-point.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/plastic-viscosity-yield-point.html Drilling Fluids Thu, 21 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000 To diagnose what solids are doing to the mud, you need two numbers from a rotational viscometer — plastic viscosity (PV) and yield point (YP). They split the… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/non-aqueous-drilling-fluids.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/non-aqueous-drilling-fluids.html Drilling Fluids Wed, 20 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Non-aqueous drilling fluids (NADF) — OBM and SBM — change the solids-control job in fundamental ways. The equipment is mostly the same; the priorities,… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/differential-sticking.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/differential-sticking.html Performance Tue, 19 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Differential sticking is the most expensive single failure mode in drilling — and one of the most preventable. The solids-control conditions that create the… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/thermal-desorption-units-tdu.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/thermal-desorption-units-tdu.html DWM Mon, 18 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000 The vertical cuttings dryer drives OOC to roughly 3–5%. For many regulatory environments that is sufficient. For others — the North Sea under OSPAR 2000/3,… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/solids-control-on-hpht-wells.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/solids-control-on-hpht-wells.html Performance Sun, 17 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000 HPHT drilling — BHT above 150 °C and/or pore pressures exceeding 10,000 psi — is where the solids-control job gets unforgiving. The fundamentals don't… https://scdrilltech.com/articles/ecd-management.html https://scdrilltech.com/articles/ecd-management.html Performance Sat, 16 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Equivalent circulating density (ECD) is the effective mud weight the formation sees while the pumps are running. Drilled solids affect ECD through two…