John Leju Celestino Ladu^1,, Paul L. Demetry¹, Andrew L. Athiba¹, Stanislaus T. Venusto Lako¹

High concentrations of heavy metal and oil & grease contents in petroleum drill cuttings are a substantial obstacle which affects treatments and consequently reduces the clean-up efficiency of the stabilization/solidification (S/S) process. In this study, a Water-Based Drill Cuttings Plant was used for the treatment of drill cuttings wastes. The main purpose of this study is to assess the efficiency of the water-based drill cuttings plant using S/S treatment Method. Samples of treated wastewater effluent and soils before and after subjected to the drill cuttings treatment plant on site were collected. A range of parameters were analysed from the sampled wastewater and soils. The trace elements and heavy metals such as; copper (Cu), Zinc (Zn), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Chromium (Cr), Cobalt (Co), Nickle (Ni), Lead (Pb) and Cadmium (Cd) were within the normal expected ranges for both samples from the ponds containing treated and untreated drill cuttings. The routine soil parameters of pH, organic matter (OM), Nitrogen (N), Potassium (K), Sodium (Na), Calcium (ca) and magnesium (Mg) from pond before and after treatment were not statistically significant. It suffices to note that the soil samples from the pond containing wastewater before treatment (the drill cuttings pond) had significantly high levels of oil & grease. This could be attributed to the oil & grease levels leaching from the contained wastewater to the soil before its treatment. The results generally show that a number of wastewater effluent and soil parameters from the water-based drill cuttings plant complies with both the Sudanese Guidelines for discharge and the Ugandan effluent discharge standards (NEMA) except for Total iron, Cadmium, Chromium, and Oil & grease, hence a reflection of the adequacy of the treatment plant.

water-base drill cuttings, stabilization/solidification, heavy metal, oil & grease, leaching