The hydrocarbon extraction and exploitation using state-of-the-art modern drilling technologies urge the use of biodegradable, environment-friendly drilling fluid and drilling fluid additives to protect the environment and humanity. As more environmental laws are enacted and new safety rules implemented to oust the usage of toxic chemicals as fluid additives, it becomes inevitable that we re-evaluate our choice of drilling fluid additives. Drilling fluids and its additives play a crucial role in drilling operations as well as project costing; hence, it is needed that we develop cost-effective environment-friendly drilling fluid additives that meet the requirements for smooth functioning in geologically complex scenarios as well as have a minimal ecological impact. The current research work demonstrates key outcomes of investigations carried out on the formulation of a sustainable drilling fluid system, where groundnut husk is used as a fluid loss additive and a rheological modifier having no toxicity and high biodegradability. Cellulose was generated from groundnut husk at two varying particle sizes using mesh analysis, which was then compared with the commercially available PAC at different concentrations to validate its properties as a comparable fluid loss retarder additive as well as a rheological modifier. In the present work, various controlling characteristics of proposed groundnut husk additive are discussed, where comparison at different concentrations with a commercially available additive, PAC, is also validated. The API filtration losses demonstrated by the (63–74) µm and the (250–297) µm proposed additive showed a decrease of 91.88% and 82.31%, respectively, from the base mud at 4% concentration. The proposed husk additives acted as a filtrate retarder additive without much deviation from base rheology and with considerably higher pH than the base mud. This investigation indicates that the proposed fluid loss additive and rheological modifier can minimize the environmental hazards and have proved to be a cost-effective eco-friendly alternative in this challenging phase of the hydrocarbon exploration industry.

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