A system for using a heated portable vacuum slurry box to efficiently store and transport material including drill cuttings from gas and oil well sites. The slurry box generally includes a vacuum tank, a structure attached to the tank, a vertical tailgate, and a hook for pulling the slurry box onto a vehicle. The features allow for the slurry box to meet space restriction requirements at a well site while functioning within the environmental conditions of winter and summer seasons. The system includes a preferred method to unload the slurry box.

A shaker assembly and method, of which the shaker assembly includes a shaker tank, a mixing tank in fluid communication with the shaker tank and positioned adjacent thereto, an overflow weir positioned between and separating the shaker tank and the mixing tank, a first shaker positioned over the shaker tank, and a second shaker. The first and second shakers are configured to operate in parallel to partially separate a solid from a liquid of a drilling waste fluid. During normal operation, at least some of the liquid flows from the first and second shakers to the shaker tank, and from the shaker tank over the overflow weir and into the mixing tank.

Systems and methods presented herein generally relate to measuring physical lithological features based on calibrated photographs of cuttings and, more specifically, to the analysis of individual cuttings that are identified in the calibrated photographs of the cuttings. For example, the systems and methods presented herein are configured to receive one or more photographs that depict a plurality of cuttings, to identify one or more individual cuttings of the plurality of cuttings depicted in the one or more photographs, to extract morphological, color, texture, grain size, and grain distribution data from each individual cutting of the one or more individual cuttings, to perform lithological classification of the one or more individual cuttings at a plurality of hierarchical levels based at least in part on the extracted morphological, color, texture, grain size, and grain distribution data or based at least in part on features directly extracted from the one or more individual cuttings that represent the morphological, color, texture, grain size, and grain distribution data, and to present a consolidated results summary of the lithological classification of the one or more individual cuttings at the plurality of hierarchical levels via the analysis and control system.

A drill cuttings composite core apparatus, system, and method that may utilize sieve shaker equipped with a solvent wash system to separate, clean, and size cuttings, a centrifugal mill equipped with a 12 tooth rotor and 1.0 mm ring sieve, a compactor mold that may be 1.5 inches in diameter and up to 6 inches long, dual piston compactor with independent air control valves, and a spacer on top of a bottom piston that allow compacted core to be pushed up through top of mold for easy removal with no special tools or handling.

A horizontal decanter centrifuge for enhanced recovery of drilling mud from drilling mud solids. Oilfield decanters will always suffer some drilling mud losses because they can only achieve a certain effectiveness with respect to solids dryness. The embodiment describes a process to mitigate the financial burden of drilling mud losses by adding a less expensive sacrificial fluid to take the place of drilling mud in the solids phase. A process and apparatus for drilling mud displacement is described including flowing the drilling mud into a horizontal decanter centrifuge, wherein the stresses imposed within the decanter act to force a sacrificial fluid to displace the drilling mud. The embodiment also describes a process wherein vapours or mist are prevented from escaping and becoming airborne into the external atmosphere.

Systems and methods for removing drilling fluid from wet drill cuttings are described. According to some embodiments, the method comprises, at a pressure above atmospheric pressure: combusting a rich air-fuel mixture at a rich combustion temperature, thereby producing a generally low oxygen, inert rich exhaust; providing said rich exhaust to the wet drill cuttings to contact and directly heat the wet drill cuttings by convection so that at least a portion of the drilling fluid is evaporated therefrom and at least some dry solid drill cuttings remain; condensing at least a portion of the evaporated drilling fluid to produce condensed drilling fluid; and separately recovering the condensed drilling fluid and the dry solid drill cuttings.

Methods and systems for removing drilling fluid from wet drill cuttings are described. The methods may comprise: at a pressure above atmospheric pressure: separating air into constituent nitrogen and oxygen gases; heating a first mixture comprising the constituent oxygen gas with a mixture of air and natural gas to a combustion temperature, to produce a first combustion exhaust; transferring heat from the first combustion exhaust to a second mixture comprising the constituent nitrogen gas and non-condensable inert gas, thereby heating the second mixture to a first temperature; providing the heated second mixture to the wet drill cuttings to contact and directly heat the wet drill cuttings by convection so that at least a portion of drilling fluid is evaporated therefrom and at least some dry solid drill cuttings remain; condensing the evaporated drilling fluid to produce condensed drilling fluid; and separately recovering condensed drilling fluid and dry solid drill cuttings.

A system for adapting drilling of a borehole in a subterranean formation based on comparing a received cuttings weight to an expected cuttings weight. The system comprises a processor; a non-transitory memory; at least one display; and an application stored in the non-transitory memory that, when executed by the processor, determines the received cuttings weight based on data received from a cuttings storage unit (CSU); determines the expected cuttings weight based on a current borehole depth, on a drill bit geometry, and on a cuttings density value; and presents a representation of the received cuttings weight and a representation of the expected cuttings weight on the at least one display, whereby at least one parameter of drilling of the borehole is adapted based on comparing the representation of the received cuttings to the representation of the expected cuttings weight.

An automated or robotic mud-logger having a slurry sampler to collect a slurry sample online from a drilling fluid circuit contemporaneous with drilling of a borehole, the slurry sample including drilling fluid and rock cuttings. A liquid separator removes drilling fluid from the slurry sample and discharges a sample of the rock cuttings. A spectrometer performs elemental analysis of the sample of the rock cuttings substantially in real time with collection of the slurry sample.

The present invention provides a method for separating oily drill fluid from an oily drill cuttings slurry comprising oily drill fluid and drill cuttings. The method comprises destructively modifying at least a portion of the drill cuttings that are contacted by at least one cuttings-reactive chemical thereby disrupting attraction forces between the portion of the drill cuttings and the oily drill fluid and making it easier for mechanical cuttings treatment equipment to separate oily drill fluid from the oily drill cuttings slurry.