Abstract:
This paper aimed at improving the water-based drilling mud using Moringa oleifera (M. Oleifera)
plant leaves. The rheological properties (plastic viscosity (PV), yield point (YP), and gel strength) of
the mud were measured using standard procedures. The mud weight was not affected by M.
oleifera concentration (10.03-10.63 pounds per gallon (ppg)). pH of the formulated mud decreased
by 28% with increasing concentration of the M. oleifera leaves. The highest PV (33cP) was
recorded by mud with 1% M. oleifera leaves at 50oC while the least value (22cP) was given by
control mud at 70oC temperature. Highest YP (57 1b/100ft 2 ) was recorded by mud sample with 4%
concentration of M. oleifera leaves while 1% gave the lowest YP value of 91b/100ft2 at 30oC and 49oC respectively. Gel strength at 10 seconds showed improvement with 2% concentration of
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leaves by recording maximum of 5 1 b/100 ft at 70oC while the lowest gel strength was recorded
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by 1% leaves concentration at 49oC. A good gel strength (30.21 b/100 ft ) at 10 minutes was
recorded by mud sample with 3% leaves of M. oleifera at temperature of 30oC. The results
indicated that the M. oleifera leaves significantly improved the rheological properties of the mud. It
was also observed that the mud weight of formulated muds with M. oleifera leaves were not
affected which leads to stability of the wellbore if the formulation is used. These great result calls
for the need to use M. oleifera leaves to improve rheological properties of the drilling mud. An
investigation of M. oleifera as fluid loss control should be done as well as need to carry out isolation
and characterization of the active ingredients from M. oleifera leaves so as to establish the
compound (s) associated with its activity in drilling mud.
