This is awesome! Great insights and contributions. I really appreciate the detailed comment; I'm encouraged. Thank you

About the comparison between the cost of bentonite importation and that of the additives, I would research on that subsequently. But I am assuming that the importation aspect would be more costly considering that those bags of bentonite have to transported down to the country plus their purchase cost.

About the density, we know pressure increases with depth. Thus, it is incumbent on the mud engineer to always monitor the pressures both formation and hydrostatic to when we to introduce densifiers or dilute.

Normal pressures should be maintained at all times while drilling as either low or high could be detrimental to the whole operations. I look forward to having the practical experiences though in the near future.