Drilling mud pit

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A drilling mud pit (also mud pit or oil sludge pit ) is a pit that contains drilling mud primarily from wells in the oil and gas industry. Operation and monitoring are subject to mining law . Due to the demarcation from waste and soil protection law, the drilling mud pit does not correspond to a landfill under mining law .

Legal basis

Drilling mud pits are subject to mining law. Operating plans must be drawn up for the operation of drilling mud pits . After the drilling mud pit has been made usable, the mining supervision can be ended. The drilling mud pit would then pass into soil protection law .

Environmental relevance

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Up until the 1950s and 1960s, the environmental problem was only considered subordinate. Due to gas drilling in water protection areas (some of which were designated later), there are also drilling mud pits in water protection areas.

In the groundwater effluent, mainly chloride and sodium can be found in increased concentrations: “In the drilling mud landfills, the dominance of the parameters sodium (KF = 30.7) and chloride (KF = 22.4) can be clearly seen, those from the stored clay-salt -Rinse. ”Sulphate and heavy metals are subordinate.

Mineral oil hydrocarbons (MKW), aromatic hydrocarbons (BTEX) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) have also been detected through the storage of cuttings from oil and gas wells . The drilling and oil sludge pits received media attention in December 2014 through an article by NDR in the ARD magazine Plusminus . Anyone could then report suspected areas on an internet platform. Drilling mud samples should contain up to 44 mg / kg PAH and 55 mg / kg MKW. As a reaction, all 40 drilling mud pits in Lower Saxony under mining supervision were examined.

In 2012, 98,000 tons of drilling mud were disposed of in Lower Saxony - the highest value to date; In 2013 the amount was 68,000 tons. Remediated drilling mud pits can be biotopes for animals such as amphibians.

Number of mud pits

  • Lower Saxony: at least 400, of which around 40 are still under mining law. In 2015, the last remaining sludge pit went out of operation.
  • Brandenburg: 400
  • Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: around 345
  • Saxony-Anhalt: 278, 249 already renovated
  • Bavaria: around 170

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Drilling and oil sludge pits. State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology , December 5, 2014, accessed on January 22, 2015 .
  2. ↑ a b Johannes Müller, Ulf Larres: Mining and soil protection. (PDF, 3.97 MB) In: 14th Lower Saxony Soil Protection Forum. State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology (LBEG), November 28, 2013, accessed on January 22, 2015 .
  3. ^ Gas industry in water protection areas (in Lower Saxony) , Google map.
  4. ↑ Groundwater investigations as part of landfill monitoring in Lower Saxony (PDF) , Lower Saxony State Office for Ecology 2004
  5. ↑ a b c d e f Alexa Höber: Time bomb drilling mud. In: plus minus. ARD, December 4, 2014, archived from the original on January 14, 2015 ; accessed on January 22, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Suspected areas , Google map
  7. ↑ LBEG checks all drilling and oil sludge pits that are under mining supervision. In: lbeg.niedersachsen.de. State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology, December 5, 2014, accessed on January 22, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Facts 2013. (PDF, 848 kB) Lower Saxony Society for the Final Disposal of Special Waste Ltd (NGS), June 11, 2014, accessed on January 22, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Beatrix Koberstein: 280 million euros for renovation measures. Dismantling of drilling mud pits and probe sites. In: az-online.de. March 31, 2010, accessed January 22, 2015 .
  10. ↑ Geodata Center Hanover. Mud pits. In: NIBIS map server (2014). State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology (LBEG), accessed on January 22, 2015 .

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