everyone seems to have their theories about whether or not constant circulation of water based liquid mud is good or bad for the product. Some will argue that the constant mixing will cause the mud to raise in temperature thus causing the barite to “fall out,” therefore it better left untouched. Others say the opposite, that mixing the mud is the only way to keep it from "falling out."
I just assume do as the loading facility says to do, or follow instructions verbatim from the client, so as not to become at fault for going against the client’s request.
Does anyone have any insight as to whether the circulation is absolutely necessary? Curious to see what people with more experience might have to say.
Do what the client says, exactly. To quote an email once from my client “are you stupid or can you just not fucking read. Do not, I repeat do fucking not have the boats circulate oil based mud, can you fucking mouth breathers grasp that concept?” Sometimes getting CC’d on emails is fun!
What engineer is not going to follow the instructions the dock gave him? That should be the bigger question. If he wants to put his license up against a room full of PHD’s that have developed this stuff let him go right ahead, but I’m not going to back him for a second when it hits the fan for not following their instructions.
Everyone has an opinion about the need for circulation, but no one I know would be crazy enough to disregard the written instructions from the dock/mud engineer. I would not want to be on the hook for upwards of a million dollars. You let a batch of mud fall out because you didn’t circulate when you were supposed to, and you’ll be gone so fast, it’ll take two weeks for your bags to catch up. That said, BHP has a strict no circulate policy. You better believe I got that in writing from two different people.
We had a batch on here that the CAPTAIN made the call not to circulate the mud. It sat for 8 days untouched. I was beside myself. Never would I ever want to be responsible for some hundreds of thousands of dollars because of some “I know more than the mud engineer mentality.” It’ll catch up to him someday.
[QUOTE=BoatDrivahh;123464]We had a batch on here that the CAPTAIN made the call not to circulate the mud. It sat for 8 days untouched. I was beside myself. Never would I ever want to be responsible for some hundreds of thousands of dollars because of some “I know more than the mud engineer mentality.” It’ll catch up to him someday.[/QUOTE]
If you’re the engineer, get that shit in writing in the log book. If he wants to make the decision, he can take the responsibility.
We do what the mud engineers and client say to do. I could care less whether the mud falls out or not. We don’t clean the tanks. WE inspect them. So if what we are instructed to do causes the mud to fall out and form a gelatinous mass on the bottom of a liquid mud tanks and must be removed 5 gallon bucket at a time, again, I could care less.
Whether we like it or not, we (bridge) are nothing but glorified bus drivers. THEY tell us to go to the rig, we go to rig. THEY tell us to go in, we go in. I make decisions on important things like safety, stability, life, death and groceries. You know, the things that matter. What to do with mud is not a decision I wish to make.