Assessment of available technologies for treatment of drilling cuttings considering economical and geographical conditions

The aim of the thesis is to outline why hydrocarbons still so important nowadays and how to manage the environmental impact in a sustainable way, in particular the management and disposal of the waste stream of drilling cuttings. The paper present the importance of the Oil and Gas sector, the petroleum generation, the Oil and Gas exploitation and production and the waste stream generated by it with a particular focus on drilling muds and drilling cuttings. An analysis among the different types drilling muds (i.e. drilling fluids) in particular on the oil-based (OBM) one has been performed because of the important environmental impact and the consequently waste management needed. Among the different possible technologies have been analyzed in detail the more reliable one according with the economical, legal and environmental constrains. The chosen technologies are Solidification/Stabilization (S/S), Composting (bio-pile technology), Thermal desorption, Cement Plant AFR (Alternative Fuels and Raw Materials and Eko/grid technology. A business plan has been implemented to understand which one between those technologies is the more suitable in some possible different scenarios where the main driver take in account are local actual economical, social and political situation, law limits, logistic and duration of the project Ten different cases have been studied, two different scenarios for each of the five chosen technologies. The two different chosen scenarios are Europe and North Africa The results presented shall be taken as an exercise the demonstrate how to approach a new business in the field of Drilling Waste Management (DWM) and calculate a DWM Company start-up costs and finance required and a basic P&L (Profit & Loss). The business plan model in the way has been implemented can be used to assess quickly the convenience of one technology with respect another for a Start Up company or can be a tool used for assessing a new investment linked to a project.