Knowledge on shale formations which make up almost 70% of the wellbore section is crucial since drilling through shale formations are very problematic. Various mud configurations have been designed to curtail these challenges over the years. One of the approaches in solving this challenge is designing optimum membrane efficient water-based drilling fluids capable of generating high osmotic pressures in shales. A set of integrated experiments have been conducted on selected bio-based plants containing saponin responsible for bio-plants surfactant acting property. The crude extracts containing saponins were used to design a water-based mud and deployed in a series of pore pressure transmission inhibition studies through measurements of membrane efficiency, wettability, and zeta potential analysis measurements. Results indicated that the bio-surfactants can create the much needed high osmotic pressure in shales leading to significantly improved membrane efficiency of the shale of over 80%. The results confirmed the leaky nature of shales as semipermeable membranes and membrane efficiency was found possible to be a function of the saponin concentration. Membrane efficiencies in shales were found to be low with high-permeability shales not showing membrane efficiency at all. Further analysis of the data showed that the flux of ions is a function of the ionic radii, shale permeability, and the cation exchange capacity of the shale. Stability of the shale was sustained to a larger extent by the reduction the drilling fluid water activity ability in creating a high osmotic pressure in shales

由于在页岩地层中钻探非常困难，因此对构成井眼截面近70％的页岩地层的知识至关重要。多年来，已经设计了各种泥浆配置来减轻这些挑战。解决这一挑战的方法之一是设计能够在页岩中产生高渗透压的最佳膜效率水基钻井液。已对含有负责生物植物表面活性剂作用特性的皂苷的选定生物基植物进行了一组综合实验。含有皂苷的粗提物用于设计水基泥浆，并通过测量膜效率，润湿性和ζ电位分析测量值，用于一系列孔隙压力传输抑制研究。结果表明，生物表面活性剂可以在页岩中产生急需的高渗透压，从而使页岩的膜效率显着提高80％以上。结果证实了页岩作为半透膜的泄漏性质，并且发现膜效率可能是皂苷浓度的函数。发现页岩中的膜效率低，而高渗透率的页岩根本没有显示出膜效率。对数据的进一步分析表明，离子通量是离子半径，页岩渗透率和页岩阳离子交换容量的函数。通过降低页岩中高渗透压时钻井液水活度的降低，可以更大程度地保持页岩的稳定性。