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Oil, Gas & Mining vocabulary · Drilling & Wells

Drilling mud

Meaning in oil, gas & mining, with examples

/ˈdrɪlɪŋ mʌd/nounCore term

In oil, gas & mining, drilling mud means: A specially mixed fluid pumped down the drill pipe and back up the hole to cool the bit, carry rock cuttings to the surface and control well pressure.

In Turkish: sondaj çamuru, sondaj sıvısı

How it is used

Called 'mud' on the rig and 'drilling fluid' in technical writing. The mud engineer checks mud weight, viscosity and losses. Water-based and oil-based mud are the main types. Heavier mud is used to hold back high formation pressure.

Example sentences

  1. We raised the weight of the drilling mud after the gas readings increased.

  2. Cuttings carried up by the drilling mud are checked by the geologist every ten metres.

Common collocations

  • mud weight
  • mud engineer
  • oil-based mud
  • water-based mud
  • mud losses
  • drill bitThe cutting tool at the bottom of the drill string that breaks and crushes rock as it turns, making the hole deeper.
  • kickAn unwanted flow of gas, oil or water from the rock into the well, which happens when the formation pressure is higher than the pressure of the mud column.
  • blowoutAn uncontrolled release of oil, gas or water from a well after the pressure control systems fail. It can cause fires, deaths and serious pollution.
  • casingLarge steel pipe lowered into a newly drilled section of a well and cemented in place to stop the hole collapsing and to keep rock layers and fluids apart.

More terms: Drilling & Wells

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