Thermal cutting desorption process applies heat to cuttings to separate and recover hydrocarbons drilling wastes. Thermal desorption is a separation and recovery process resulting in three streams: water, oil and solids. The heating volatilizes liquid and the vapors are cooled and separated into water and oil phases. The water phase is used to cool and return moisture to the solid stream; the oil phase can be recovered and made into a new drilling-fluid system or used as a fuel source, while the solids could be disposed of or reused. Energy consumption for this treatment option are based on generator fuel consumption, processing rate of the thermal desorption equipment and burners fuel consumption. For thermal desorption equipment that do not utilize burners to generate heat such as hammer mill technology, the equivalent fuel used by a generator to drive the rotor is used for simplicity.