PT125.S1.P2.Q11 > Analytics

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Passage A.

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Facts about drilling muds · Function

Lubricate parts of oil well drills, clean drill parts, give info about what's happening during drilling.

Facts about drilling muds · What's in them

Barite is the largest ingredient in drilling muds.

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Facts about drilling muds · "Recipes"

Different companies have their own drilling mud "recipes." This makes it difficult to study environmental effects of drilling muds.

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Facts about drilling muds · Released during drilling phase, highly regulated and controlled

One kind of drilling mud · Water-based mud (WBM)

Used for shallow wells. Not very toxic. Dumped directly overboard.

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Another kind of drilling mud · Oil-based mud (OBM)

Used for deeper wells. More mineral oil and more barite than WBM. More environmentally damaging than WBM. Only residue of OBM can be dumped overboard.

Passage Style

11.

Based on information in the █████████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ████████ ███ █████████ ███████ ███ █ ██████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████████ ████████ █████ ████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████

Question Type

WSE (RC)

This Strengthen question asks us to strengthen the prediction that the proportion of oil-well drilling using OBMs will increase in the future. OBMs are only mentioned in passage B, so we can focus on passage B for this question.

We know that OBMs are used to drill deeper wells, so information that tells us that the proportion of deep-well drilling will increase in the future will strengthen this prediction.

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The passage doesn’t indicate that OBMs can be a substitute for WBMs––just because WBMs become more expensive doesn’t mean that OBMs can replace them. Actually, passage B says that OBMs and WBMs are used in different kinds of wells. Because of this, (A) doesn’t strengthen the prediction that OBMs will be used in a greater proportion in the future.

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This doesn’t impact the prediction. We already know that deep wells need OBMs. This question is concerned with the proportion of drilling done using OBMs, not the concentration of barite used in the muds. (B) doesn’t give any information that indicates that the proportion of deeper wells will increase in the future, so (B) doesn’t support the claim that a greater proportion of drilling will be done with OBMs.

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This supports the prediction. (C) tells us that, in the future, a smaller proportion of wells will be shallow and a greater proportion of wells will be deeper. We know that OBMs are used for deeper wells, so (C) tells us that, in the future, a greater proportion of drilling will be done with OBMs.

89%

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The prediction is about the use of OBMs, not about the way that OBM residues are handled. (D) doesn’t provide any information that indicates that the proportion of drilling done with OBMs will change.

Barite is a ██████ ████████ ███ ████████████ ██ █████ ██ █████████ ██████████

The prediction is about the use of OBMs. (E) doesn’t provide any information that indicates that the proportion of drilling done with OBMs will change. If barite is limitless, it could still be the case that the proportion of drilling done with OBMs will be the same, or even decrease, in the future.

PrepTest 125 - Section 1 - Passage 2 - Question 11

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