For Drilling Fluid Companies
The raw materials your fluid systems are built on.
Mud companies do not buy minerals — they buy function. Weight, viscosity, filtration control, bridging, inhibition. This page maps what we stock to the job it does in your system, the hole section it belongs to, and the base fluid it will tolerate.
By Function
What each material does in the system.
Organized the way a mud engineer thinks about a formulation, not the way a periodic table does.
Weighting agents
Density and hydrostatic pressure control. Barite in three grades: API 13A Barite 4.2 and Barite 4.1 for drilling service, plus a 3.9 industrial grade outside the API scope. Consistent specific gravity is the whole point — a load under spec forces over-treatment and throws off weight-up.
BariteViscosifiers & gel strength
Sodium montmorillonite builds yield point and gel strength for cuttings transport in water-based systems. API 13A grade: 600 rpm dial reading ≥30, YP/PV ≤3.
BentoniteFiltration reducers
Bentonite develops the thin, low-permeability filter cake that limits fluid invasion into permeable formations. API 13A caps filtrate volume at 15 mL.
Calcium CarbonateBridging & wellbore strengthening
Acid-soluble calcium carbonate at 200 and 325 mesh seals permeable and producing intervals, then washes out cleanly with acid — the reason it is the default bridging solid in drill-in fluids where a permanent plugging agent would damage the reservoir.
Shale inhibitors & water-phase salinity
Salt suppresses clay hydration in water-based systems and sets the water activity of the internal brine phase in invert emulsions, so the fluid neither swells nor over-dehydrates the shale it is drilling.
Sodium Chloride
Calcium Chloride
Ammonium SulfateAlkalinity & pH control
Lime buffers alkalinity in water-based mud and, in invert emulsion systems, reacts with fatty acids to form the calcium soaps that act as the primary emulsifier. Soda ash and bicarbonate cover the rest of the pH range.
Hydrated Lime
Sodium Carbonate
Sodium Bicarbonate
Magnesium OxideContamination treatment
Sodium bicarbonate treats cement contamination after drilling out a shoe or plug — its buffered response makes over-treatment far harder than with soda ash. Soda ash handles calcium and gypsum contamination.
Clear brine density
Solids-free density for completion and workover fluids. Sodium chloride to roughly 10.0 lb/gal saturated; calcium chloride carries further, to about 11.6 lb/gal, with low formation-damage potential.
By Hole Section
Where each one belongs in the well.
Same fourteen minerals, arranged by when you actually order them.
Spud & surface hole
Bentonite spud mud for hole cleaning and wall support in unconsolidated shallow formations. Soda ash to treat calcium hardness out of makeup water before the bentonite goes in — hard water will not let it yield.
Intermediate hole
Weight-up for pressure control, salt for shale inhibition, lime for alkalinity, and bicarbonate on standby for the cement contamination that follows drilling out the shoe track.
Reservoir & drill-in
Sized acid-soluble carbonate for bridging the producing interval without leaving a permanent plug, plus sized salt where the completion allows it. What goes in here has to come back out.
Cementing
Class F fly ash as extender and durability additive, barite where the slurry has to be weighted, magnesium oxide for expansion and shrinkage compensation, carbonate as lost circulation material.
Class F Fly AshCompletion & workover
Solids-free brines at the density the program calls for, without the formation damage a weighted mud would leave behind.
Base Fluid Compatibility
What tolerates what.
The filter buyers apply before anything else. Marked from standard drilling-fluid practice — always confirm against your own formulation and pilot test.
| Material | Water-based | Oil / synthetic | Brine-based | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barite | Standard use | Standard use | Conditional | Weighting agent across all systems. Hematite is the alternative where higher density per unit volume is required. A true solids-free clear brine takes its density from dissolved salts, not from weighting solids — barite belongs in weighted brine and saturated-salt muds, not in a completion brine. |
| Bentonite | Standard use | Not applicable | Not applicable | Needs fresh water to hydrate and yield. Oil-based systems use organophilic clay instead; salt suppresses yield in brine. |
| Calcium Carbonate | Standard use | Standard use | Standard use | Inert and acid-soluble in every base fluid. Size selection drives bridging performance. |
| Sodium Chloride | Standard use | Conditional | Standard use | In invert emulsions, one of the salts used for the internal water phase; NaCl or CaCl₂ depending on the activity target. |
| Calcium Chloride | Standard use | Standard use | Standard use | The common internal-phase salt in invert emulsion systems, set to match the water activity of the shale being drilled. |
| Hydrated Lime | Standard use | Standard use | Conditional | Alkalinity in water-based mud; in oil-based mud it reacts with fatty acids to form the calcium soap primary emulsifier. |
| Sodium Carbonate | Standard use | Not applicable | Conditional | Calcium and gypsum contamination treatment, and makeup water conditioning. |
| Sodium Bicarbonate | Standard use | Not applicable | Conditional | Cement contamination treatment. Buffered, so it is difficult to over-treat. |
Logistics & Delivery
Where we ship from.
Eagle Pass sits in Maverick County, over the Eagle Ford and Pearsall shales of the Maverick Basin, and directly on the border crossing into Coahuila. That puts us inside the South Texas play and one bridge away from the Burgos and Sabinas basins — which is why cross-border supply is a core capability here rather than a service we bolted on.
Tell us what your project needs.
Share the material, volume, and delivery point — we'll follow up with pricing and availability, usually within one business day.