The oil-based mud plant designed, produced and constructed by Brightway for a shale gas field in Southwest China has completed various constructions and will be put into use soon. This indicates that the shale gas fields in this area will realize the centralized preparation and transportation of oil-based mud, which is of great significance for improving drilling speed, efficiency and quality, improving mud recycling rate, reducing drilling construction cost, and promoting safe and environmental protection construction.

Mud is called the "blood" of drilling, and plays a key role in lubricating the drill bit and ensuring the stability of the wellbore during the drilling process. Its performance will directly affect the quality and speed of the drilling project. In recent years, the development of shale gas fields has been increasing year by year, and the annual demand for oil-based mud will further increase with the increase in the number of wells drilled in areas with relatively concentrated shale gas fields. For a long time, the drilling companies involved in the construction of the gas field have independently prepared and used oil-based mud by themselves. Since each oil-based mud system is different, the mud contents are also provided by themselves. There are differences in mud performance, high consumption, high cost, and recycling. There are many disadvantages such as low utilization rate and high safety and environmental protection risks.

In order to solve these drawbacks, the gas field drilling company actively prepares and promotes the construction of the oil-based mud plant in the area, and strives to realize the standardized management of the oil-based mud system, the supply of oil-based mud, the overall operation of the production organization, the reasonable reduction of engineering costs, and the safe and environmental protection construction. etc.

At present, the oil-based mud plant under construction is equipped with mixing tanks, mixing tanks, storage tanks, transfer tanks, as well as supporting pipelines and electronic control equipment, with a total reserve capacity of 1,400 cubic meters, including 400 cubic meters of new slurry storage capacity and 1,000 cubic meters of storage capacity. In addition, the oil-based mud plant is also equipped with a mud testing laboratory to meet the needs of mud testing in the station and on the well. The oil-based mud plant can be used as the mud supply hub and transfer station of the gas field block, and can simultaneously handle the drilling mud treatment needs of 20 gas wells.

After the oil-based mud plant is completed, the intensive supply, recycling and recycling of oil-based mud can be realized, which can effectively reduce the use of oil-based mud, reduce construction costs and safety and environmental protection risks; after further optimization of the ratio, it will help to unify and improve performance of oil-based mud can improve the quality of drilling construction, reduce the occurrence of complicated situations, and promote the speed and efficiency of drilling. Efforts will be made to reduce the generation of hazardous wastes on site and further promote the green development of gas fields.