UNIVERSITY OF MINES AND TECHNOLOGY

PROJECT SYNOPSIS

NAME OWUSU AMPOMAA WINNIE

DEPARTMENT PETROLEUM ENGINEERING
FACULTY MINERAL RESOURCES AND TECHNOLOGY
DURATION FULL TIME (4YEARS)
SUBMISSION OF PROJECT MAY, 2017.

A. PROJECT TITLE.
UTILISATION OF LOCALLY PRODUCED HEMATITE AS A
WEIGHTING MATERIAL

B. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM.

Hematite is one of the abundant minerals on the earth’s surface and in the shallow
crust. It is an iron oxide with a chemical composition of Fe 2O3. It is a common
rock –forming mineral found in sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks at
locations throughout the world. It is an ore of iron mined at thousands of
locations around the world. It is a high-density weighting material of specific
gravity about 19% greater than barite. Hematite can be used as a pigment mineral,
mixed with other colors and used for painting, it can also be used to produce small
sculptures and tumbled stones (Anon, 2017).
Weighting materials are materials or compounds that are suspended or dissolved in
drilling fluid to increase its density. They are used to control formation pressures
and to help combat heavy shales that maybe encountered in stressed area. Barite
with specific gravity of 4.2 has been the most common weighting material used in
drilling fluids. Due to increase in drilling activities, the demand for barite as a
weighting material in drilling fluids is expected to be increasing difficult to meet,
moreover, the supply of barite is geologically limited, with high transportation
cost. API standard barite with specific gravity of 4.1, which was recently
introduced due to the diminishing of the readily available barite, provides little
value to the drilling fluids and poses challenges to drilling techniques employed
routinely today ( Adewale and Salihu, 2014).
 Weighting materials such as manganese tetraoxide, treated micronised barite and
others have been successfully used to handle many problems, but they are
expensive and not produced in large volumes. Barite however, is prone to sag and
so requires viscosifiers and other gallants to keep it in suspension, also drill solids
that is incorporated into the drilling fluids assumes the particle size of API
specification barite, thereby resulting in reduced solid separation efficiency at the
shakers and centrifuges (Adewale and Salihu, 2014). There is, therefore the need
for alternative weighting materials capable of providing a better functionality,
available in sufficient quantities to meet requirements and be competitively priced.
This project therefore seeks to evaluate the performance of our locally produced
hematite as a weighting material in drilling fluids.

C. PROJECT OBJECTIVE
The objective of this project is to;
 Evaluate the performance of local hematite as a weighting material in
drilling fluids.

D. METHODS TO BE USED.
The methods to be used are;
 Review of relevant literature.
 Laboratory experiment.
 Consulting lecturers at the Petroleum Engineering Department, University of
Mines and Technology.
 Consulting lecturers at the Mineral Engineering Department, University of
Mines and Technology.
 Analysing of results obtained.

E.