Assignment Paper

You are in charge of the mud handling system on a drilling rig. You need to increase the mud
weight for the recirculation. There are some sacks of Barite available but there is no
information about them. You weighted one barrel of the Barite and it is 1505 lb.
1. Calculate the density of the Barite in ppg
2. Calculate the specific gravity of the Barite
3. There are 500 barrels of 11.5 ppg mud available. How much pound of the Barite will be
needed to increase the mud weight to 13 ppg?
4. How much pound of barite will be needed if you have to make extra 200 barrels of 13
ppg fresh mud from water? (NOT from the old mud)
5. After circulating this mud (13 ppg), you found out that it became too heavy and now it’s
14 ppg after removing cuttings. You need to lower the weight back to 13 ppg. What
would you recommend to do? Be specific. Assume there is no lost circulations and you
have the same 700 barrels of mud that you made previously.
Show ALL your calculations and explain your work.
Hint: For the part 3, 4 and 5, you must to use tables 1-4 from page 20-24 of the textbook. There
will be no credit if you use other methods.
Conversion: 1bbl = 42 gallon