Episode 352 | Weight Material

0:00Drilling fluids touch just about everything in the drilling process. We're here to deconstruct the drilling process and drilling fluid concepts to provide a deeper understanding of our industry. In each episode we'll share information, talk to interesting people and maybe share a few stories along the way. Welcome to the Flow Line, a production of AES Drilling Fluids brought to you by Matt Offenbacher and Justin Goethe. And what's up everybody welcome back to another episode of the Flow Line, myself, and we have a new just kidding. It's Matt. Still me. Still us. I wonder if there will be a day where we introduce a new co-host. It would be interesting. I mean. It would be a different podcast. It would be. There'd be two super duper smart people or two people who ask questions and can't really get the message across because you're not here.

1:04What if they tried to pretend to be in a very smarty way? It would be. It didn't say anything. It didn't say anything. It's like the office when Jim tried to be Dwight, you know, copious mannerisms or something like that. That would be it. Well, past April now, but maybe next year we'll surprise her when we make a little April fool's episode. That would be absolutely hilarious. No, it's Matt and I obviously here. Big shout out to Spain. Yeah. For those. For the one at soccer. Football. Yeah. They did a good job. I guess Messi couldn't pull it off. You could say his performance was Messi. See what I did there. I didn't watch it. I was busy with my kids. Other things happening at the time, but did you watch it or paid the judge? So I did the proper American thing. I looked at halftime and saw the score was still zero zero. I was like, forget this and the the brewery I live real close by.

2:04I can always hear everybody cheering during the games and stuff. So while I was cleaning out some flower beds, I could at least tell some things were happening or almost happening. There was action. Yeah. That's funny. It was one nothing and it went into overtime. Was that right? I don't like it went into overtime, but it went into the extra time or whatever I guess. It was one nothing. It was still close all the way to the end. Wow. So there was a lot of people who thought the FIFA this World Cup was rigged somehow because Argentine is one. The game that they scored a ton of points and not very much time. There was a bit of a conspiracy out there. Were you familiar or heard? I feel like there's always a conspiracy theory because FIFA has a very long robust history of corruption issues. Oh, they do. Oh, yeah. Why didn't you? Yeah. So it's a that's funny. But like let's face it with social media today just about everything is a conspiracy theory.

3:07So as an avid follower of baseball, there's a few tinfoil hat things on altering the stitching on baseballs and loft and some other things. No way. Favourite particular hitters versus others. There's all kinds of just with and the problem is like the trust isn't there anymore. So you're like, I don't know. Maybe there is something to it. Like let's let it cook. I don't know. You know, before you'd be like, that's ridiculous. Right. So that is that is funny. Well at least we have for those that have a strong suspicion that FIFA is ready. You got four years to build a case. Yes. Which I feel like is a long time. I mean, it feels like it. Yeah. Yeah. We'll see. In other news, Matt, you mentioned baseball. I feel like it's it warrants a little bit of an update. Anything exciting happening? I don't know if exciting would be the word. Well, the Astros are not a very good baseball team this year.

4:09Shucks. They've had their opportunity where you're like, okay, I could see him breaking out. All they need to do is fix a few things. But they got swept by the Orioles and nothing that they produced on the field exhibited anything that would suggest breaking out of anything. But the American League is so bad that they're not like totally out of it. Oh my god. It's this part where it's like, don't trade away anybody good to try and make something of this season. Like I would, you know, so I think that like they're most people are after this weekend pretty much like, let's just wait until next year. So there's not a lot of weight on their shoulders to produce deep into the playoffs. Well, the problem is that enough teams get in that if you're able to get in, like you just have to be hot at the right time. Sure. I mean, it's baseball is very much like it's such a long season that you can be good, but like a lot of teams that have gone all the way just

5:09click at the perfect time. Yeah. And so there's just this like, look, get in and see what happens. Kind of a deal. But they're just so the roster construction is so bad that I don't know. I don't know what to think. But Lance McCulloch's Houston favorite was traded to the brewers. I may have mentioned that. Yeah, I think that was a joke. Yeah, we did. So been grieving that end of an era. But I told my son about it, broke the news to him and I thought he was going to be pretty upset because I guess we'll have to cheer for the brewers too then. That is rock solid. Yeah, there we go. Yeah, I mean, that's a good way to look at it. Yeah, lemonade out of lemons. Let's do it. Right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, lots of winning the World Series just went out. Yeah, exactly. A lot actually. Yeah. Oh, that's funny. Good deal. Well, you know, it's it's just part of it.

6:10Yeah. We went on a good run years ago. And now it's just I guess maybe rebuilds, Dave. And so I guess now we can slowly start thinking about the Texans because that footballs around the corner. So that's exciting. Yeah, they could be exciting this year. I don't know how they stack up or what the odds look like or how they're ranked at. I haven't had a chance to look at that. Last year they made a pretty good run. And so I think if they're healthy because I think that was part of the issues last year with some injuries that sort of drug them down a bit. But nonetheless, they they're I think their first two games are here at home. And I mentioned bringing my son to one of them and he was just absolutely fired up because this is his first year playing tackle football. Oh, boy. And so he's been playing flag for long, you know, like three years. And yeah, we threw the pads on and he's in the thick now. And yeah, we practiced yesterday. It was 106 in the boys are out there with all our gear on and it was hot. But he likes it. He's fired up about the whole thing loves it. And then so when I told him, hey, what do you think about going to a Texans game? He was absolutely pumped to death. So anyway, that being said now football is high on his priority list.

7:14Okay. He was excited about going to the Astros game. We did a couple of those. And so as now the seasons are slowly shifting, it's this time, football time. Nonetheless, we're not here to talk about Houston sports nor are we here to talk about youth sports weight material. Um, I don't know if you picked up what I said earlier about having the weight on the shoulders. I was going to tie that into it. But then I got deviated from the, but weight on shoulders, uh, you know, today we're talking about different weighting materials. And so, you know, traditionally when we talk about weight material, we automatically think one product and one product only. Yeah, bear right. Yeah. But there's other weight materials that can achieve the same thing with really not that much trade off technically. But we're here to talk about all that good stuff. And so Matt, what do you think we sort of unpack that and give the listeners a bit more in depth knowledge on weight material properties? I think it's, well, it just seems so necessary. There is so much going on in the world of Baywright, which we depend so heavily on.

8:18And, um, there also seems to be a lot of misunderstanding, misinformation and, of course, like, well, what are we going to use if, you know, Baywright costs keep going up as well? There are alternatives, but, you know, we got to keep in mind some things. I thought, let's, let's talk about properties, almost in the realm of like why Baywright fits so well, but also why some of these other things are, would be under consideration or why people use it in the oil field. No, I think it's the timing is great. Uh, and again, like you said, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's over time these things have come to the table and slowly drift it off, but the reality is when you think just specifically on Baywright, uh, it is a mind mineral, uh, and as much as, like anything in the world, we think we haven't unlimited amounts of it. We don't. And so, uh, whatever that timeline horizon, uh, looks like, at some point, there will be switches made or slowly over time. We'll have to consider other options. And so I, I think it's just a good conversation. Uh, let's talk about the properties first and foremost. What makes it, you know, weight material, what are some favorable properties that we

9:22look for when considering weight material? So first and foremost, we prefer a higher specific gravity. So this is, I get more density per, you know, pound of material, or well, not per pound of material, but like, less volume to get that pound in there. And the reason is because those solids affect flow properties, you know, as we discuss at length and other, other podcasts, but, um, you know, the idea of being that, that a higher specific gravity means less solids, better flow properties, better, you know, that sort of thing. Um, it also may settle faster, which can be something we have to, you know, when we're talking about settling in SAG, we have to keep in mind. Um, but that's, you know, that's a big one. Um, you know, non abrasive or minimally abrasive. So relatively soft, uh, with the idea that you're circulating this stuff in a fluid. And so, um, you know, it's going to be, you know, bumping up against everything inside your pipe.

10:22And well, that doesn't seem apparent. Um, over time, it could lead to some, you know, erosion. Uh, so if we can manage that, we do. Um, another aspect is, uh, non magnetic. Uh, so some way of materials are magnetic. They have, um, ferrous materials, uh, and, um, in light of that, uh, you know, you have to have special considerations, so they can straight up interfere with certain equipment. Uh, so, you know, logs, that sort of thing, you know, you may, uh, you may not find these very favorable or you may have to avoid them altogether. Um, you know, the other one in NERT. So basically, I don't want this reacting with my mud chemicals, right? I, or anything. Uh, so it's got to be a very stable material so that when I add other chemicals to it, it still acts like the weight material that I intended to add. Sure. Um, and so, you know, Baywright, that's one big conversation is, uh, oh, it's got

11:22Bariah in it. Well, Bariah is very tightly bound to the sulfate. Uh, it's not very soluble. It's not very, you know, very limited toxicity. Um, and so even though it has Bariah in it, it's, it's, uh, you know, minimally, minimal impact on environment and health and safety considerations. Um, and then the last one would be the, you know, cost effective, uh, which, so it's, it needs to hopefully tick as many of these boxes as possible and not be too expensive. And I would just add kind of you alluded to, you know, the problem for Baywright is, it is particularly in situ. It's a heavy material. So transportation is a huge driver of cost. Right. It's not located next to the drilling rig that you, you want to use it at. Um, and not only that, but, um, because in situ, it's relatively inexpensive to like, there's all, it's relatively abundant material. However, economically, to want to actually use it, um, it needs to be priced high enough

12:28or co-located with some other valuable mineral. Yeah. And so, uh, you know, I was reading about, uh, you know, some areas where they, where minds have been investigated and it's mostly people hoping that like, hey, if they do like a silver mine over here, there, there's good stringers of Baywright that maybe they would sell it as a, you know, it's effectively a waste product for them, but like they dug it up. Yeah. Why not give it to the oil field, you know? No, that, that part was interesting. I talking to a Baywright supplier at a conference one time, they were talking about the mind that they have, uh, and they basically, it's, it's a gold mine, but they used sort of Baywright as like the cash engine to scale the gold mine. Hmm. And so they really didn't make money on the Baywright, but it was enough to sort of support the other mining operations. It was just neat, because I was still learning about the Baywright industry in itself and I was like, yeah, like we've got this material in that material and, you know, but mining gold is much more expensive than mining Baywright. Um, and so anyway, just kind of like you said, um, from, I guess a business standpoint, a lot of

13:32times folks will look for not just Baywright and, and, or like I said, kind of sounds like a byproduct of what they're really going for is sort of the Baywrights just part of it. So, and then we use it. Yeah. You like taking people's trash? Yes, that's kind of our way. So, uh, let's talk about the considerations, Matt, other, other important thought, uh, considerations. Well, these are, you know, purity is a big one. I don't know why I put in the notes, purity and consistency. We'll just cover those both at the same time because, um, you know, pure barium sulfate is like a crystal clear tabular mineral like we don't, we don't deal in pure barium sulfate, you know, specific gravity of four, five. Mm-hmm. But the question is, when something is a 100% pure, everything else you get from that or is not Baywright. Um, and the lower specific gravity you get is going to be more not Baywright, um, or more not whatever other weight material we're talking about. And so, in light of that, are those things that are, you know, toxic?

14:36Are those things that are like, you know, create any other issues? Like we have to watch out for that or try and, try and make sense of, um, what we're getting as, you know, as this chunk of ore. And so, um, that's something that, you know, we certainly have to take into consideration. Um, and I think, I mean, this is even one, you hear all this stuff, you know, Baywright can be all these different colors. Well, one of the reasons is just the non Baywright constituents, whatever they are, um, you know, Moroccan ore usually has a little bit of iron in it. Um, not a ton, but it, you know, let's say it has 1% iron. Well, that's enough to give it a reddish color. Yeah. Uh, it's still used on thousands of wells all over the world. It's fine. But, um, it, if you were to run, you know, XRF on it, you'll pick that up. Um, we've, you know, recently had to show a customer like, hey, the clay you're drilling through actually has as much iron as the Baywright ore you're drilling with. Like the, just, you know, originally they test the Bay, oh, it's got iron in it, you know, and it's like, well,

15:40it's a natural material, it will. Um, also, you know, what else has iron in it? Clay. Uh, so, you know, the rock you're drilling actually has just as much iron as, as the weight material you're working with. Yeah. And so I think some of this is just people haven't seen what's measured like what we've been doing and so with no baseline. Yeah. Um, but, but the good thing is, is, is with folks and not only us, but anyone who provides the market with Baywright, there's ways to make sure that you're below a certain point. They don't just mine it through and there's much iron in there and then we just go pump it. Right? Like there's ways around making sure that it still meets spec, even if there is other things in there that are not Baywright. Oh, absolutely. I mean, that's a deal. We check this stuff, right? Yeah. Uh, the, the hard part is that, um, you know, the traceability is miserable for Baywright, right? We do, we do, it's for, it's much safer to transport in bulk, which means, you know, as soon as it leaves, you know, let's say it's one of our mills and it goes into a bulk truck,

16:41we don't know what was in there before. We don't know if it was completely empty, like, and that's going to get transferred into a, you know, a silo at a rig that probably already has material in it. Um, and then we pull it out and, you know, hey, what, what exactly is this? Um, and we don't know exactly where it came from and, and there is sort of a wild west aspect to some of this stuff that, uh, require some monitoring. Yeah. Um, and so we do our best to, to keep an eye on those things and, and, you know, we run QC all the time, um, just to, you know, to make sure that we meet spec. Um, but it is a, uh, it is a pretty elaborate process to keep an eye on, and it's very difficult to trace anything back to its point of origin once it's at the rig. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so I, I mean, that's, that's a big part of it is helping people understand what's typical. I mean, you could even get iron in your Baywright just from pneumatic transfer, right? Right. Uh, it's, it's one of those, um, there's, there's reasons, you know, you don't want 10% iron in your Baywright, but then again, if you have 10% iron in your Baywright, you don't have a lot of Bayer,

17:52Barium sulfate in there to begin with. Yeah. Um, you've got, you're, you're more in like hematite territory. Got you. But, anyways, yeah. Let's, let's talk about some common options. That's, I think, uh, the brass tax here. What, give us some options, Matt, let's start with the lowest specific gravity, uh, mineral or product that you could get away with. Calcium carbonate is, you know, the go to and the open hole completion reservoir drilling world. Uh, in fact, they'll use ground marble, um, with, you know, they'll have specs for acid solubility because, um, I mean, you can, hydrochloric will take away most, almost everything of calcium carbonate. Uh, and so, um, it's only got a specific gravity about 2.8, though, which means, um, you know, I remember us trying to put together like a, I think it was like a 12 or 12, 5 mud, uh, for reservoir drilling application using calcium carbonate. And we had to, um, I'm trying to remember, like the lowest PV we could get was like 60, which we just drilled with it.

18:54Like, managed it, but, um, it had a calcium bromide internal phase. And I think it was still like a 50, 50, oh, water ratio, very expensive fluid. But it was all about making sure that we were all acid soluble, uh, because of the type of the well we were, that we were drilling. So all of our solids that we added needed to be acid soluble. Hmm. Okay. You know, I don't know why again, when I worked in Canada, as a Reagan, I remembered in several occasions, we built slugs with calcium carbonate. And for the life of me, I can't remember if it was on in the intermediate or maybe it was in the lateral. Hmm. But we would switch back and forth and I could never remember why. And now thinking about, I'm sure there's, there was reasons. Um, but they would always, I remember when we did it with Baywright, it was like a certain amount of pallet. And it wasn't. Anyway, going to put the point I'm trying to make is like, I, I don't think there's too many people down here. And probably because we drove with heavier fluids where you take, got off of the amount of calcium carbonate to weight up to whatever 13, 14 pounds.

19:57Um, but yeah, if you're driven with a lightweight fluid and you got a bunch of cow carbon location, maybe it makes sense to build a slug out of it. Um, but anyway, that was just sort of a random, uh, memory as we were talking through it. Uh, let's talk about the next one. So strontium carbonate, 3.5 SG, uh, this one I included in the list only because it is, it, it exists. Uh, by that, I mean, there's not like, you know, you're not buying, you're not seeing this in a lot of places. However, there are some documented cases of it being used. Um, it's viable. I would say that, you know, the big thing holding it back is 3.5 SG is, is pretty low still. Um, you know, I'm, I'm willing to tolerate the 2.8 for CalCAR because of all the assets, all the ability I'm getting. Um, as we get heavier with some of these, uh, I'm mostly looking for flow properties and I can only get so far with lower specific grouties. But maybe, like, almost kind of like you're alluding to in lighter mud weights, maybe. Yeah. Is, is, is strontium carbonate assets soluble?

20:59Uh, it should be. Yeah. Uh, to some degree. Um, all, okay. So let me go with assets solubility, solubility on the rest of these. Um, someone will always say that something is assets soluble and the question is, how much, um, you know, what's your test? So like, a lot of times a standard is 15% hydrochloric acid, which is fine if you can pump hydrochloric acid. A lot of places you cannot pump 15% hydrochloric, you have to use formic or you have to use something out. Well, if that's the case, then guess what? Who cares because you're not getting rid of that stuff? Right. The other thing I see is, uh, claims of assets solubility, uh, that you see the claims, you never see the documentation and having messed with a lot of these things in a lab setting where we were trying to determine it, we were unable to achieve anything that was claimed. Hmm. Um, and so I would say very limited if at all. Um, but anyways, you know, other than calcium carbonate, the rest of the

22:04these, uh, you know, I guess iron carbonate, which would be the next one on the list would be pretty acid soluble, but a problem arises. Okay, iron carbonate, three seven SG, not that common, but we got our iron. So now we got our, our interference, right? Yeah. There's a ton of iron in it. It is acid soluble because iron is acid soluble and calcium carbonate is, is, is, or iron product is with carbonate definitely acid soluble. Um, the problem is that iron is not great when you acidize it because, um, it will actually create emulsions and that sort of thing. So if you're worried about formation damage, um, you don't want iron. Uh, normally when you do an acid job, you'll pump something like a keylent, uh, to tie up the, the iron that goes into solution from all your metal hardware you use to pump with. Yeah. Simply because, um, you don't want it to create sludge and that sort of thing. So, um, yeah, iron carbonate, not going to see a lot of it, but acknowledge it exists, um, for the sake of having a list that has more than three things on it.

23:04Um, and move to celestide. Um, that's an interesting one. What, what, uh, what's the SG and tell us a little bit about that? So celestide, pure celestides, I, uh, is about like 395-ish, um, maybe a little higher than that. Uh, so this is strontium sulfate. So you think barium sulfate, strontium sulfate kind of, so, yeah. Very similar, um, you know, it's not very abrasive. That kind of thing, um, the, the thing is there's just not as much of it to go around. So there's not as many like commercial mines, uh, producing it. Um, in fact, I'm only aware of maybe one. Uh, it's co-located with baywright in some mines. Uh, so like you're, you know, three nine baywright might have some celestide in it. Yeah. It has actually been used in drilling fluids for, you know, a number of years off and on, um, it does the job. We're seeing a lot more of it out in, you know, particularly West Texas, because like the, the mine I'm alluding to is, is in Mexico.

24:05So it's transportation-wise, relatively accessible. Yeah. And so, you know, it's out there. It's, you know, when you talk about this versus three nine baywright, I guess, probably one thing that, um, you know, can be appreciated is if it's, if it's near purity, it means it doesn't have the other stuff. Yeah. You know, uh, and so that's, you know, part of the conversation for sure. But probably better suited what we're still below four. We're probably still best suited to some of the lower mud weights. So like the production section of the Haynesville was 16 pound mud might not be the place for Sleshtite. Right. But it might be just fine for a production section in West Texas where we're at 12 pounds or 10 pounds. Yep. So, yeah, makes sense. Let's move one up the list. So we hit baywright, okay? So this is the go-to. Um, baywright, you know, ranges, I would say commercially from three nine to four two.

25:07The problem is, is you get below three nine, even as you approach three nine, depending on what else is in it. There's less than less barium sulfate and so kind of what do you call it? But, uh, I mean, you can go up to four three. I mean, there, you know, you can source four three or, um, there's, uh, you can even use chemical reactions to precipitate, uh, fine baywright. Um, I will add that, uh, we mentioned particle size or non abrasive. Um, there are going to be some of these products we're going to talk about here, uh, as we go down the list where how they address some of the abrasive concerns was actually to grind them finer. Um, for baywright, the reason that you would get a fine grind material is to mitigate sag or settling. So it really like narrow ECD environments. It wasn't just the risk of sag. It was you wanted to be able to lower your algae as low as you could. And, you know, let's say, long for five days offshore. Right. And the problem is, if you're do that with conventional baywright, it would all fall out and you

26:08would have a serious problem on your hands where a finer grind baywright has lower settling velocity. I keep my, my viscosity down and I could get the suspension that I needed. Sure. So, um, you know, there's different flavors of it, uh, outside of the, you know, API stuff, which we'll talk about a little later. Um, and then we kind of work our way into some of the more, I don't know if you call them specialty materials, but like, you're not going to see these everywhere, but, but there's, there's plenty of literature on them being used. Um, they're out there. So, ilmanite is a four six SG. Um, this was actually trialed, I think in the 70s and Norway. No. And the big problem they couldn't get past was that it, um, it was very abrasive. And so most of what you're going to see now with ilmanite is a micronized option. So a very fine grind, um, which limits the abrasion, it mitigates settling and sag.

27:08Um, the big question with some of these two that are, that are very fine, um, materials is, you got a lot of surface area, which means, you know, if you're going to use an oil-based mud, getting it mixed, getting it oil wet. So, um, even in water-based mud, you may be looking at a dispersant to go with it. Uh, you can certainly make it work and you can get it pretty heavy if you need to. Sure. Um, and then manganese tetra oxide is another one. This is the, uh, you know, everybody's favorite red dust if you've ever been on one of these jobs. Um, it's a four eight SG. Most of it, I mean, this one is, is probably, you know, I have heard, I don't know for sure, but, um, I've heard that the cementer's always take most of it from everybody when they need to do high density cement jobs. Yeah. Um, but it's a manufactured product like it, I mean, you, you mine the base material, but it, it requires actual processing and that sort of thing. So like, that limits the supply because you have to want to do it. Right. Um, and I, I believe manganese tetra oxide is, um,

28:11fundamentally like the manganese stuff and batteries. There's a big draw to use the Ross for like higher profit, you know, interest battery technology. Uh, well, last but not least, and a lot of people, I think, have heard of this product. Yeah. I mean, this is probably, it goes back to the more familiar would be hematite. So a five O specific gravity. Um, and normally what happens with, I mean, when we talk about well control operations or, or, you know, really heavy applications, you do a blend of Baywright and hematite, right? You're not necessarily just using neat Baywright, but you're going to use hematite. Um, you, you get that, um, this is when, you know, you're looking at 21, 22 pound mud and you need flow properties like, yeah, you got to throw something else in there. Um, abrasivity is an issue. It has some assets, all you ability, but, um, I wouldn't bet you got so many solids in your mud that you're probably using. I don't know if I bank on that. Um, you know, so this is, this is a very common one. Um, you know, if you're in a

29:13bind and Baywright won't get you there, you're probably going to call hematite out there. Um, it's another one that arguably you could do a fine grind of it to mitigate abrasion. Um, not much you can do about the, uh, the magnetic properties though. Um, and so, you know, that's kind of a, that's a pretty broad list. I don't know. There's probably one that someone is like, you forgot to mention this. Let us know what we forgot. Um, because, uh, you know, that's a, several of those, I don't think anybody really uses, you know, strontium carbonate, iron carbonate, very, very limited use cases. Yeah. The rest of them are, um, there's plenty of literature out there and that sort of thing. So, uh, um, anyways, a lot to choose from, but when we get into the things that have to be micronized, we're going to pay a lot more money for that, right? It's more energy to grind. Yeah. Even micronized Baywright. Um, there's a, there's a lot of other cost factors involved. Um, you get really, really fine and you may not even be able to pneumatically convey it and now you need to

30:13transport it in a slurry. Yeah. There's, there's other things to it. Um, the other part of this is, uh, you know, there's not a lot of it to go around where you wouldn't, even if it was, if it was relatively inexpensive, you wouldn't be able to just cartblanche say, well, we're just going to use this from now on. Um, and the other part of it, like with, with Baywright being a relatively cheap material in situ, once again, you get into the like transportation bug, right? Like, yeah, I got to move this heavy stuff from here to here. And so it may be that if, if you don't have the supply chain in the logistics nailed down, um, transportation will sort of eat you alive on cost. Um, and only gets worse at with the, you know, some of these more obscure materials is if I got to send it across oceans and trucks and all that, um, it may, it may kind of rule it out pretty quick. Yeah. So, um, no, that's good. It's, it's, it's good information, man. It's, uh, again, I think as the industry evolves,

31:18things change, costs structures change across the board for different products. Uh, these might come to light sooner than we think. Or if all of a sudden the industry decides that they want to pay a premium for Baywright, then maybe people will be incentivized to go out and mind more of it. Yeah. Uh, because that seems to be somewhat of a challenge is just there's not enough money to reinvest into exploratory work. Uh, that is a huge part of it. Um, you know, it's, if you think of one is, you know, how do you, you need a bunch of money first to like, evaluate an asset. So you drill a bunch of test holes. Where is this, these, where are these Baywright streaks across my like lease? Mm-hmm. How deep is it? If it's too deep, it's not economic. How thick is it? Is there enough there to make it worth it? Like a bunch of those sort of considerations, then you got to get permits. Um, and permitting is a very long process, especially you want to open a, a mine. Yeah. Um, there's a lot of other headwinds and once again,

32:24I'm like, I'm not mining gold per se. So if I'm, I'm explicitly pursuing Baywright, this can be more of a challenge. Yeah. But, um, yeah. So, uh, it, it may be that Baywright just needs to get expensive enough that it's well worth looking for more of it. And, you know, hopefully, it's not too difficult, but, um, our, our options are limited, which is why we keep circling back to Baywright. Yeah. No, that's it. And so let's just kind of wrap it up. Let's talk quickly about this specifications that a lot of these products are, all of them are required to meet. Well, it's a really limited set. Uh, so even, you know, when people say, Oh, where I've got API grade Baywright, well, so to be monogrammed, if you will, you have to show a certain set of processes and like API comes and visits to your facility and, and there's a lot of sort of extra paperwork involved in that. But, um, the API will have, has specifications for,

33:24for Baywright currently, it's 4.1 or 4.2 specific gravity. They don't, they, um, there are, I don't know how far it's gotten along, but they've looked at different, you know, finer grinds and that sort of thing and offering a spec for those. But, um, composition wise, there's nothing other than calcium less than 250 milligrams per kilogram. And size wise, it's, um, uh, 3% over 75 microns and 30% over 6 microns. And that's it. Um, so when somebody says, I need a particle size distribution curve for Baywright, like, look, this is API size, but like that curve, you're not going to overlay that curve and I'd be guaranteed that the curve is going to be the same again and again, because we're just measuring two points. Um, and even these were for a time and a place where, you know, some people would say, well, I prefer finer Baywright anyway, so it stays in my system longer. Um, so there's that, there's other environmental like, uh, you know,

34:28nepoties, so offshore, there's limits for mercury and cadmium. Um, and so, uh, you know, but as far as other specs, like the API doesn't really have a lot, um, I, they're actually, I should have checked into this because I'm pretty sure there is actually a specification for hematite. Um, however, I had forgotten about that. The one thing they do is, is they do provide like methods to measure, right? So, um, the specific gravity, you have to measure it with a Lachatelier flask currently, which we're all fingers crossed that they will approve the gas pickometer, which is way more accurate and easier to run. Okay. Um, but it just takes a long time to move some of those things ahead. Yeah. Um, but all that being said, when you say it's API Baywright, it doesn't guarantee any, you know, composition wise, it doesn't really guarantee much. Yeah. Um, so you can be compliant without, you know, with having some other, you know, considerations to, uh, that you don't want

35:30to overlook fair enough. Um, well, that's, I mean, again, I think that's a good 30 minutes of Baywright aka weight material and several other things that we've discussed. Uh, it's a good conversation. And I encourage anyone out there that's listening. Um, if you've used any of these other products, if you have any thoughts around weighting material in general in the drilling fluid space, um, maybe you've come across something crazy in your backyard that you want to try. Uh, we're always open to questions and comments. You can reach out to Matt and I on LinkedIn or you can reach us at the Flowline podcast at aesfluids.com. If you have any ideas for a show that have nothing to do with weighting material, please let us know. We'd love to chat about it. Matt, any other things you want to chat about or let them let the, let the world know? I know. I think I'm, uh, I'm exhausted from talking about weight material. It sounds good. Well, look, everyone out there, we are in the heat of summer. So be cool. Stay safe out there until next week. Cheers. Take care. Thanks for listening. Please tune in next week for another exciting episode of the Flowline.

36:33And remember, may your returns always be full and your trips always smooth. Use Express in this program belong to participants and not their employees. The program is for informational purposes only and cannot take the place of seeking professional advice. Copyright AES Drilling Fluids.