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Global demand for hydrocarbons has led to higher production activity in the Gulf of Mexico, where internal olefins were first used in synthetic drilling muds as a result of tough environmental regulations limiting the disposal of drilling debris at sea.

The emergence of similar marine regulatory frameworks in other regions, and growing environmental awareness and responsibility of exploration and production companies, has resulted in a steady uptake of olefin-based muds in other parts of the world.

"We designed NEOFLO olefins in response to changing environmental regulations in the Gulf of Mexico and increasing standardisation of environmental practices across the world," says Product Manager Sean Clarry.

"Now we're improving our capabilities to serve a market that is growing fast and where reliability of supply is a must."

NEOFLO content

Drilling muds are essential to oil and gas exploration and production. They circulate in the wellbore during the drilling process to cool and lubricate the well, and help to remove cuttings.

The mud adheres to debris that accumulates during drilling and, to prevent pollution of the marine environment, the mud-spiked debris cannot be disposed of at sea unless it meets strict levels of toxicity and biodegradeability.

Traditional oil-based muds were unable to meet the limits imposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Gulf of Mexico, which meant the debris had to be hauled ashore - an economically and environmentally costly solution. Water-based muds could be disposed of at sea but did not provide the same levels of technical performance required in complex drilling operations.

The search for alternative formulations resulted in the development of synthetic muds using internal olefins in place of traditional base oil. "Synthetic muds based on NEOFLO pass all the environmental compliance tests for toxicity and biodegradeability without sacrificing drilling performance," explains Clarry.

"They are fully compliant with EPA offshore discharge regulation requirements, biodegrade under anaerobic conditions, have low aquatic toxicity, and contain no aromatic hydrocarbons. This means they have minimal impact on the aquatic environment.

"And from a technical perspective they can match the viscosity performance and thermal stability of oil-based formulations."

Clarry (right) says synthetic muds have played a key role in the development of new oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico. "Production companies are operating in deeper water and having to employ advanced oil recovery techniques to reach these new reserves. These are challenging, high-risk environments and they need the assurance that critical materials like drilling muds will perform and at the same time comply with strict environmental regulations."

The market has also spread globally. "Similar limits for offshore disposals have been introduced in other parts of the world, while a number of oil companies have adopted voluntary standards for protecting the environments in which they operate."

As a result, there has been a significant increase in demand for NEOFLO products. The global market for internal olefins in this application is estimated to have more than quadrupled in less than five years.

"In addition to a significant increase in the volume of products being consumed in the Gulf of Mexico, we're now supplying NEOFLO products to support drilling operations in a number of other countries including Mexico, Brazil, Vietnam and Brunei," says Clarry.

To keep pace with the market, production capacity has been increased and storage and shipping facilities improved at the Geismar, Louisiana, manufacturing facility. "We're also manipulating the flexibility of our SHOP (Shell Higher Olefins Process) technology to improve product quality and to extract a greater yield of internal olefins from the process," he says.

"It's a very different type of market both in terms of volume and geography, and one that could continue to expand. We have increased focus on this sector and taken measures to grow capacity in line with the market, to ensure there is security of supply for our customers."

The flexibility of the SHOP process has enabled a significant increase in output of alpha and internal olefins from the integrated HODer manufacturing facility at Geismar, Louisiana, in the US.

"There are competing markets for HODer's products so the challenge for us was to find ways to pull more internal olefins from the units while maintaining the overall balance across the portfolio of alpha olefin (AO) grades," says Michael Petit, AO Production Coordinator at Geismar.

"We're using a very controlled method to use what we have to produce more. By optimising our feed prep units and reconfiguring one of our return streams we've been able to increase overall AO throughput and so make more internal olefin precursors available."

He says the installation of a continuous analysis and control system ensures that the SHOP plant's complex series of distillation columns is running at maximum efficiency at all times.

"As a result, the isomerisation unit which converts heavier AO grades into internal olefins is running at optimum capacity rates, without comprising on safe operating limits."

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