weighting agent

Weighting agents are predominantly used to combat high bottom hole pressures.

Weighting Agents increase density.

Drilling muds are slurries of clays and powered heavy minerals as weighting agents, as well as various additives.

A weighting agent such as barite is added to increase the overall density of the drilling fluid so that sufficient bottom hole pressure can be maintained thereby preventing an unwanted (and often dangerous) influx of formation fluids.

It is used primarily as a weighting agent in oil drilling muds, as a filler and extender in paint and plastics, as a flux in glassmaking and as source material for barium chemicals.

Most baryte is ground to a small, uniform size before it is used as a filler or extender, an addition to industrial products, in the production of barium chemicals or a weighting agent in petroleum well drilling mud.

The Precambrian Dalradian geological formations in the Highlands north of Aberfeldy contain substantial deposits of the mineral baryte, which is mostly used as a weighting agent for drilling fluids to prevent blow-outs in oil and gas exploration wells.