Novel Starch Composite Fluid Loss Additives and Their Applications in Environmentally Friendly Water-Based Drilling Fluids

Abstract During the oil and gas drilling engineering, the selection of drilling fluids must take account of the technical and environmental factors. This study investigated the effectiveness of carboxylated cellulose nanocrystals (denoted as CNCs) as environmentally friendly additives in improving the rheological, filtration, and inhibitive performances of bentonite (BT) water-based drilling fluids (WBDFs). CNCs used in this study were modified by carboxylation reaction, displaying small size, negative surface charge, good colloidal stability, and prominent shear thinning behavior. The experimental results indicated that BT/CNC suspensions had superior rheological properties, low fluid loss volumes, and effective inhibition, even at 140 °C. Microstructure analysis demonstrated that CNCs could attach to the surface of BT via hydrogen bond and ionic bond. CNCs, BT, and vicinal water molecules could form a stiff gel network, which had a strong resistance to flow under shear force, leading to a significant improvement in the rheological properties. Moreover, under the differential pressure, BT/CNC suspensions formed thin and less hydrophilic filter cakes with compact layered structure, thereby efficiently decreasing the fluid loss volume. Finally, due to the gel network and filtration ability, BT/CNC suspensions performed low water activity, which was beneficial for preventing the penetration of free water into the shales and borehole well. Thus CNCs also exerted satisfactory inhibition on hydration and dispersion of BT and shales. As a result, CNCs showed great potential to be used as efficient, multi-functional, and environmentally friendly additives in WBDFs.

Download Full-text

Polyanionic cellulose/hydrophilic monomer copolymer grafted silica nanocomposites as HTHP drilling fluid-loss control agent for water-based drilling fluids

Applied Surface Science ◽

10.1016/j.apsusc.2021.152089 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 152089

Author(s):

Xiangru Jia ◽

Xionghu Zhao ◽

Bin Chen ◽

Egwu Saviour Bassey ◽

Zhiyang Huang

Keyword(s):

Drilling Fluid ◽

Control Agent ◽

Fluid Loss ◽

Drilling Fluids ◽

Silica Nanocomposites ◽

Hydrophilic Monomer ◽

Water Based ◽

Loss Control

Download Full-text

Experimental study on thermal, rheological and filtration control characteristics of drilling fluids: effect of nanoadditives

Oil & Gas Science and Technology – Revue d’IFP Energies nouvelles ◽

10.2516/ogst/2020033 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 75 ◽

pp. 36

Author(s):

Erfan Veisi ◽

Mastaneh Hajipour ◽

Ebrahim Biniaz Delijani

Keyword(s):

Thermal Conductivity ◽

Heat Capacity ◽

Drilling Fluid ◽

Formation Damage ◽

Fluid Loss ◽

Drilling Fluids ◽

Drill Bit ◽

Rheological Characteristics ◽

Cu Nanoparticles ◽

Water Based

Cooling the drill bit is one of the major functions of drilling fluids, especially in high temperature deep drilling operations. Designing stable drilling fluids with proper thermal properties is a great challenge. Identifying appropriate additives for the drilling fluid can mitigate drill-bit erosion or deformation caused by induced thermal stress. The unique advantages of nanoparticles may enhance thermal characteristics of drilling fluids. The impacts of nanoparticles on the specific heat capacity, thermal conductivity, rheological, and filtration control characteristics of water‐based drilling fluids were experimentally investigated and compared in this study. Al2O3, CuO, and Cu nanoparticles were used to prepare the water-based drilling nanofluid samples with various concentrations, using the two-step method. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) were utilized to study the nanoparticle samples. The nanofluids stability and particle size distribution were, furthermore, examined using Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS). The experimental results indicated that thermal and rheological characteristics are enhanced in the presence of nanoparticles. The best enhancement in drilling fluid heat capacity and thermal conductivity was obtained as 15.6% and 12%, respectively by adding 0.9 wt% Cu nanoparticles. Furthermore, significant improvement was observed in the rheological characteristics such as the apparent and plastic viscosities, yield point, and gel strength of the drilling nanofluids compared to the base drilling fluid. Addition of nanoparticles resulted in reduced fluid loss and formation damage. The permeability of filter cakes decreased with increasing the nanoparticles concentration, but no significant effect in filter cake thickness was observed. The results reveal that the application of nanoparticles may reduce drill-bit replacement costs by improving the thermal and drilling fluid rheological characteristics and decrease the formation damage due to mud filtrate invasion.

Download Full-text

Laponite: a promising nanomaterial to formulate high-performance water-based drilling fluids

Petroleum Science ◽

10.1007/s12182-020-00516-z ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Xian-Bin Huang ◽

Jin-Sheng Sun ◽

Yi Huang ◽

Bang-Chuan Yan ◽

Xiao-Dong Dong ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Performance ◽

Drilling Fluid ◽

Nitrogen Adsorption ◽

Drill String ◽

Wellbore Stability ◽

Fluid Loss ◽

Drilling Fluids ◽

Mechanism Analysis ◽

Water Based ◽

Inhibition Performance

Abstract High-performance water-based drilling fluids (HPWBFs) are essential to wellbore stability in shale gas exploration and development. Laponite is a synthetic hectorite clay composed of disk-shaped nanoparticles. This paper analyzed the application potential of laponite in HPWBFs by evaluating its shale inhibition, plugging and lubrication performances. Shale inhibition performance was studied by linear swelling test and shale recovery test. Plugging performance was analyzed by nitrogen adsorption experiment and scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation. Extreme pressure lubricity test was used to evaluate the lubrication property. Experimental results show that laponite has good shale inhibition property, which is better than commonly used shale inhibitors, such as polyamine and KCl. Laponite can effectively plug shale pores. It considerably decreases the surface area and pore volume of shale, and SEM results show that it can reduce the porosity of shale and form a seamless nanofilm. Laponite is beneficial to increase lubricating property of drilling fluid by enhancing the drill pipes/wellbore interface smoothness and isolating the direct contact between wellbore and drill string. Besides, laponite can reduce the fluid loss volume. According to mechanism analysis, the good performance of laponite nanoparticles is mainly attributed to the disk-like nanostructure and the charged surfaces.

Download Full-text