Millions of tonnes of oil contaminated drill cuttings are produced every year. By nature the cuttings are contaminated by drilling mud. The level of contamination depends on the efficiency of the mud return system carried out by means of shell shakers. The cuttings may origin from drilling with water based mud (WBM) or oil based mud (OBM). Many different composition of mud and many different properties in the well result in a vast variety of cuttings properties. Defining characteristics of the cuttings is difficult and it is often not made easier by the drillers and mud suppliers who tend to protect details about their mud for competitive reasons.

Drill cuttings have different destinies in different areas. Some is dumped, some is reinjected, sometimes the material is cleaned and parts of the waste are reused in new mud. It appears as if the destiny of drilling wastes often is decided upon limited input and without overall considerations. In some cases the decision seems based on un-proportional focus in only a few areas like ease of operation, emissions to sea/air, cost, storage, etc. Often the value of oil in the cuttings is not given appropriate attention.

High surface temperatures and long retention time can degrade the oil. For applications where the OBM oil is of high quality and high value, it could make a significant impact on the business case if all or parts of the output oil from the process can be re-used in new OBM or used as fuel for diesel engines.

Heat generated by friction is a well known phenomenon and evaporation by friction heat in the Thermomechanical Cuttings Cleaner (TCC^®) has been available in the drilling waste market for approximately 10 years. This method offers the best quality of recovered oil and is also the safest method to use.