Drilling Waste Management Information System

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Drilling Waste Management Information System
An Interactive Web-Based Tool for Access to
Technological, Environmental, and Regulatory
Information on Drilling Waste Management

• R. Sullivan, T. Kotek, P. Richmond, M. Puder, D.
  Elcock
• Environmental Science Division
• October 26, 2006

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Topics

• What is drilling waste and why is it a problem?
• Drilling Waste Management Information System
  (DWMIS) approach
• DWMIS module screen shots
• Results
• Technology used

Work funded by DOE Office of Fossil Energy and
the National Energy Technology Laboratory
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Drilling Waste Results from Oil and Gas
Exploration

• Drilling waste consists of drilling mud and solid
  drill cuttings
• Drilling mud lubricates drill bit and carries
  cuttings to surface
• Solid drill cuttings must be separated from mud
  so mud can be recycled
• Generally produced in large volumes during well
  drilling
• Waste can cause environmental problems when
  disposed

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Drilling Waste Management Decisions Are Complex

• Drilling waste disposal can be costly
• Disposal method must be determined prior to
  beginning operations
• Many technical options for drilling waste
  management
• Three main management methods, 12 sub-options,
  with many variations
• Not all options are allowed or make sense in all
  locations
• New, environmentally-friendly methods available
• Complex regulations exist at federal and state
  level for disposal practices
• Can greatly restrict available options

How do operators determine which drilling waste
management methods to use?
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Drilling Waste Management Information System
(DWMIS)
Web-based resource for environmentally
responsible drilling waste management decision
making

• Three modules
• Technology Description Module technical fact
  sheets on current disposal methods and
  technologies
• Regulatory Module compendium of federal and
  state regulations
• Technology Identification Module expert system
  to select reasonable disposal alternatives for a
  given location and circumstances.

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DWMIS Home Page
http//web.evs.anl.gov/dwm
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Opening Screen of the Technology Description
Module
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Example of a Fact Sheet in the Technology
Description Module
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Opening Screenshot of the Regulatory Module
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Example of a State Agency Page in the Regulatory
Module
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Link to Texas Regulations
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Opening Screen of the Technology Identification
Module
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The Technology Identification Module Development
Team

• Domain Experts
• Web Technical Lead
• Usability Expert
• Technical Programmer
• Graphic Designer
• Internal Reviewers
• External Review Panel

X 5
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Overview of Flow Diagram

• Key Decision Points
• Offshore vs. onshore
• U.S. waters vs. non-U.S. waters
• Environmentally sensitive area?

Responses trigger appropriate question sequences
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Questions on Waste Minimization and Reuse
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Overview of Flow Diagram
Offshore drilling
U.S. Waters
Waste Type Description
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(No Transcript)
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Overview of Flow Diagram
Onshore drilling
Not environmentally sensitive
Land application options
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Sample Screen from an Interactive Online
Questionnaire
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Overview of Flow Diagram
RESULTS
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Results Screen Based on Answers to Questions
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DWMIS Has Been Used Actively Since Launch

• Site launched June 2004
• 365,000 page views in 87,000 user sessions (100
  sessions/day)
• 42,000 users
• Usage increasing steadily

Currently funded to create similar application
for produced waters management
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Software and Programming Tools Used for DWMIS

• HTML
• Formats and presents the web site content (e.g.,
  images and text)
• JavaScript
• Enables fast application interaction for a rich
  user-friendly approach
• Dynamic display of follow-up questions
• ColdFusion
• Rapid development environment for Web pages
• Allows conditional processing on the server
• Provides session management capability

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For More Information

• Bob Sullivan
• 630-252-6182
• sullivan_at_anl.gov

Drilling Waste Management Information
System http//web.evd.anl.gov/dwm