Field FAQ

A solids control consultant evaluates and optimises the equipment that removes drilled solids from drilling fluid — shale shakers, hydrocyclones and centrifuges — to lower dilution cost, recover fluid and reduce drilling waste, using methods based on API RP 13C.

API RP 13C is the industry recommended practice for labelling and testing shale shaker screens by separation cut point, allowing screens from different vendors to be compared on a consistent basis.

You share rig data such as shaker, cyclone and centrifuge settings, pump pressures and mud properties. SC DrillTech runs a mass-balance and equipment review and returns a report identifying where fluid and money are being lost, with specific corrective actions.

Savings depend on the rig and section, but raising removal efficiency and correcting equipment settings commonly cuts daily dilution volume substantially — in one offshore jack-up section it recovered about $48,000 by cutting dilution from 165 to 110 bbl/day.

No. SC DrillTech is independent and vendor-neutral — we don’t sell equipment or earn commissions. Our only interest is the right setting for your rig, whatever brand is on the machine.

Both are hydrocyclones. Desanders use larger cones to remove sand-sized solids; desilters use smaller cones to reach the finer silt range. Both depend on adequate feed head — about 75 ft — to cut properly.

Cones separate by spinning the slurry hard enough to throw solids to the wall, and that spin comes from feed head, not flow. Below roughly 75 ft of head the cut coarsens and fine solids slip back into the active system, quietly raising dilution.

Bowl speed decides the duty. Lower G returns heavy barite to the active system (recovering value); higher G removes the ultra-fine low-gravity solids dilution can’t economically remove (protecting properties). Trying to do both at one speed usually does neither well.

On oil- or synthetic-based mud, a vertical cuttings dryer typically drives oil-on-cuttings to about 3–5%, with a high-speed decanter polishing the recovered fluid. Feed it at a steady rate, keep the screen sound, and measure the result with a retort (API RP 13B-2) rather than trusting the eye.

η is the share of drilled solids the surface equipment removes before they recirculate. Field-typical values run 30–70%; above 70% is a genuinely healthy system, and every point gained converts almost directly into less dilution and disposal.

Both are real engineering, but they go to different depths. A remote evaluation is fast and reflects the data and tests you run for us — ideal for a standards-based read, a mass balance and a costed fix list before the next section. An on-site evaluation goes deeper because we bring the instruments and the trained eye: shaker vibratory system analysis, live inspection and real-time measurement that data alone can’t show. If you need speed, remote fits; if you need the deepest analysis, being there is better — tell us the problem and we’ll say honestly which one it needs.

Typically: shaker screen sizes and condition; desander/desilter manifold pressure and mud weight; centrifuge bowl speed and duty; daily mud properties and retort; and dilution and footage from the daily reports. From those we run the mass balance and return the findings.