One of the most critical environmental problems of the oil industry in Russia is contamination with drilling waste that has a negative impact on the living conditions of people, animals and plants. The paper offers techniques to reclaim drilling mud sumps and enhancing their efficiency. Drilling mud sumps are pits dug on the territory of drilling sites and filled with drilling waste. The problem with reclamation of drilling mud sumps can be solved through forest recultivation, i.e. planting trees over the sumps. In order to further enhance recultivation it is offered to use carboxymethyl cellulose, which will create a protective coating on the seed surface, and to perform engineering recultivation before planting seeds.
