Effect of Ferric Oxide and Magnesium Oxide Nanoparticles on Iraqi Bentonite Performance in Water Based Drilling Fluid

Author(s):  
Ghofran F. Al-Ghanimi ◽  
Nada S. Al-Zubaidi

In oil and gas industry, the nanotechnology has been applied in different fields. Reservoir, exploration, drilling, completion, production, processing, and refinery are nanotechnology applications fields. Nanoparticles materials are one of the areas that are utilized in preparing drilling fluids. These nanomaterials are used to formulate high performance drilling fluids. In other words, these nano particles materials can be used to design smart drilling fluids. The properties of these drilling fluids can be met the well conditions requirements. The aim of this study is to enhance the performance of Iraqi bentonite in drilling fluids using nanomaterials. Iraqi calcium montmorillonite clay (Ca- bentonite) from Wadi Bashera in Iraqi Western Desert was obtained and studied in order to use it as an alternative active solid to the imported commercial bentonite. Water based drilling fluids were prepared with 3, 6, and 12 wt. % of Iraqi bentonite. Mgnesium oxide nanoparticles (MgO NPs) and ferric oxide nanoparticles (Fe2O3 NPs) with different concentrations were used. The experimental work showed that, MgO NPs resulted in a significant increase in the rheological properties of drilling fluids prepared with 3 and 6 wt. % of Iraqi bentonite. In contrast,  moderate effect on the rheological properties of drilling fluid prepared with 12 wt. % of Iraqi bentonite were obtained with low concentrations of Fe2O3 NPs. Basically drilling fluids prepared with Iraqi bentonite had extreme filtrate volume compared with API specifications and poor controlling to filtration properties were obtained with MgO NPs and Fe2O3 NPs additions. The impact of these two nanomaterials was revealed on the stability of drilling fluids prepared with Iraqi bentonite, where an enhancemment from 65 % to 100% was observed.

2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arild Saasen

Controlling the annular frictional pressure losses is important in order to drill safely with overpressure without fracturing the formation. To predict these pressure losses, however, is not straightforward. First of all, the pressure losses depend on the annulus eccentricity. Moving the drillstring to the wall generates a wider flow channel in part of the annulus which reduces the frictional pressure losses significantly. The drillstring motion itself also affects the pressure loss significantly. The drillstring rotation, even for fairly small rotation rates, creates unstable flow and sometimes turbulence in the annulus even without axial flow. Transversal motion of the drillstring creates vortices that destabilize the flow. Consequently, the annular frictional pressure loss is increased even though the drilling fluid becomes thinner because of added shear rate. Naturally, the rheological properties of the drilling fluid play an important role. These rheological properties include more properties than the viscosity as measured by API procedures. It is impossible to use the same frictional pressure loss model for water based and oil based drilling fluids even if their viscosity profile is equal because of the different ways these fluids build viscosity. Water based drilling fluids are normally constructed as a polymer solution while the oil based are combinations of emulsions and dispersions. Furthermore, within both water based and oil based drilling fluids there are functional differences. These differences may be sufficiently large to require different models for two water based drilling fluids built with different types of polymers. In addition to these phenomena washouts and tool joints will create localised pressure losses. These localised pressure losses will again be coupled with the rheological properties of the drilling fluids. In this paper, all the above mentioned phenomena and their consequences for annular pressure losses will be discussed in detail. North Sea field data is used as an example. It is not straightforward to build general annular pressure loss models. This argument is based on flow stability analysis and the consequences of using drilling fluids with different rheological properties. These different rheological properties include shear dependent viscosity, elongational viscosity and other viscoelastic properties.


Author(s):  
E.A. Flik ◽  
◽  
Y.E. Kolodyazhnaya

The article assesses the environmental safety of drilling fluids that are currently widely used in the oil and gas industry. It shows active development of water-based drilling fluid systems using xanthan biopolymer.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Osei H

High demand for oil and gas has led to exploration of more petroleum resources even at remote areas. The petroleum resources are found in deeper subsurface formations and drilling into such formations requires a well-designed drilling mud with suitable rheological properties in order to avoid or reduce associated drilling problems. This is because rheological properties of drilling muds have considerable effect on the drilling operation and cleaning of the wellbore. Mud engineers therefore use mud additives to influence the properties and functions of the drilling fluid to obtain the desired drilling mud properties especially rheological properties. This study investigated and compared the impact of barite and hematite as weighting agents for water-based drilling muds and their influence on the rheology. Water-based muds of different concentrations of weighting agents (5%, 10%, 15% and 20% of the total weight of the drilling mud) were prepared and their rheological properties determined at an ambient temperature of 24ᵒC to check their impact on drilling operation. The results found hematite to produce higher mud density, plastic viscosity, gel strength and yield point when compared to barite at the same weighting concentrations. The higher performance of the hematite-based muds might be attributed to it having higher specific gravity, better particle distribution and lower particle attrition rate and more importantly being free from contaminants. The water-based muds with hematite will therefore be more promising drilling muds with higher drilling and hole cleaning efficiency than those having barite.


SPE Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (05) ◽  
pp. 2220-2233
Author(s):  
Weian Huang ◽  
Ming Lei ◽  
Jingwen Wang ◽  
Kaihe Lv ◽  
Lin Jiang ◽  
...  

Summary The rheology of drilling fluid is commonly regulated by chemical methods. In this work, a physical method of a high-frequency and high-voltage alternating current (AC) electric field to regulate the rheological properties of water-based drilling fluid is established. The effects of the electric field on the continuous phase and dispersed phase, as well as two kinds of water-based drilling fluids, were investigated, and the response relationship among rheological properties modeled by Bingham and Herschel-Bulkley (H-B) models and electric-field parameters was explored. Results showed that water conductivity increased when voltage reached 4 kV, whereas it was restored to the original state after 3 hours in the absence of an electric field, showing a memory effect. The effect was also observed on bentonite suspension, whose plastic viscosity increased with the aid of an electric field and decreased over time. Voltage showed the greatest effect on bentonite-suspension viscosity, followed by frequency and pulse-width ratio. Under the condition of voltage of 5 kV, frequency of 5 kHz, and pulse-width ratio of 80%, there was a maximum increase of 50% in viscosity. The addition of salts caused bentonite-suspension flocculation, and electric field reduced the consistency coefficient and relieved flocculation state. When polymers were incorporated in bentonite suspension, the electric field could decrease the adsorption amount between clay particles and polymeric additives such as amphoteric and acrylamide-based polymers. For two typical drilling fluids, the voltage of an introduced electric field was the main controlling factor to change the rheological properties; their plastic viscosity and consistency coefficient both started to increase when voltage reached 4 kV.


2014 ◽  
Vol 625 ◽  
pp. 526-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lim Symm Nee ◽  
Badrul Mohamed Jan ◽  
Brahim Si Ali ◽  
Ishenny Mohd Noor

It is an open secret that currently oil and gas industry is focusing on increasing hydrocarbon production through underbalanced drilling (UBD) and finding ways to ensure the drilling process is less harmful to the environment. Water-based biopolymer drilling fluids are preferred compared to oil based drilling fluids owing to the fact that it causes less pollution to the environment. This paper investigates the effects of varying concentrations of environmentally safe raw materials, namely glass bubbles, clay, xanthan gum and starch concentrations on the density of the formulated biopolymer drilling fluid to ensure that it is suitable for UBD. As material concentrations were varied, the density for each sample was measured at ambient temperature and pressure. Results showed that the final fluid densities are within acceptable values for UBD (6.78 to 6.86 lb/gal). It is concluded that the formulated water-based biopolymer drilling fluid is suitable to be used in UBD operation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Emine Yalman ◽  
Tolga Depci ◽  
Gabriella Federer-Kovacs ◽  
Hani Al Khalaf

This study investigates the possibility of using rice husk ash as an additive to develop an environmentally friendly and low-cost drilling fluid system. The rice husk ash was added as an additive to water-based bentonite drilling fluids at different concentrations ranging from 2 wt% to 15 wt%. Rheological and filtration properties of each drilling fluid developed were measured by using a viscometer and standard low-pressure low-temperature filter press. Subsequently, cutting carrying index, minimum annulus velocity required to clean bottom of the well efficiently, flow behaviour index and permeability of mud cakes of the formulated systems were calculated in order to assess performance of the systems. The results demonstrated that the rheological and properties were improved depending on concentration of rice husk ash introduced. With the introduction of 15 wt% concentration of rice husk ash, while apparent viscosity and yield point increased by 60% and 183%, respectively, thixotropy and plastic viscosity decreased by 29% and 63%, respectively. On the other hand, drilling fluid with 4% wt% content of rice husk ash reduced the fluid loss by 10%. Moreover, results showed that cutting carrying index, minimum annulus velocity required to clean bottom of the well efficiently and flow behaviour index of the enhanced with the exploitation of rice husk ash in the drilling fluid. This study showed that rice husk ash as a promising additive to use in the water-based bentonite drilling fluids when properly implemented, and hence reducing the impact on the environment, and the total cost for drilling.


Author(s):  
Torbjørn Vrålstad ◽  
Ragnhild Skorpa ◽  
Arild Saasen

When a drilling fluid column remains static over a timeframe of several years, the drilling fluid separates into different sediment phases due to gravity separation. These heavy sediments, entitled “settled barite”, are the cause of significant operational problems several years after drilling. An important problem caused by settled barite occurs when performing casing cut-and-pull operations during slot recovery and well abandonment: the casing is “stuck” due to the sediments in the annulus outside the casing. The consistency and rheological properties of the sediments determine how easily the casing is removed. In this paper, we report a preliminary study were we have artificially prepared gravity sediment phases for two different types of water-based drilling fluids; one KCl/polymer-based fluid and one bentonite-based fluid. By studying the rheological properties of the obtained sediment phases, we see that there are considerable differences between the sediments for these different drilling fluids.


Materials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1945 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salem Basfar ◽  
Abdelmjeed Mohamed ◽  
Salaheldin Elkatatny ◽  
Abdulaziz Al-Majed

Barite sag is a serious problem encountered while drilling high-pressure/high-temperature (HPHT) wells. It occurs when barite particles separate from the base fluid leading to variations in drilling fluid density that may cause a serious well control issue. However, it occurs in vertical and inclined wells under both static and dynamic conditions. This study introduces a combined barite–ilmenite weighting material to prevent the barite sag problem in water-based drilling fluid. Different drilling fluid samples were prepared by adding different percentages of ilmenite (25, 50, and 75 wt.% from the total weight of the weighting agent) to the base drilling fluid (barite-weighted). Sag tendency of the drilling fluid samples was evaluated under static and dynamic conditions to determine the optimum concentration of ilmenite which was required to prevent the sag issue. A static sag test was conducted under both vertical and inclined conditions. The effect of adding ilmenite to the drilling fluid was evaluated by measuring fluid density and pH at room temperature, and rheological properties at 120 °F and 250 °F. Moreover, a filtration test was performed at 250 °F to study the impact of adding ilmenite on the drilling fluid filtration performance and sealing properties of the formed filter cake. The results of this study showed that adding ilmenite to barite-weighted drilling fluid increased fluid density and slightly reduced the pH within the acceptable pH range (9–11). Ilmenite maintained the rheology of the drilling fluid with a minimal drop in rheological properties due to the HPHT conditions, while a significant drop was observed for the base fluid (without ilmenite). Adding ilmenite to the base drilling fluid significantly reduced sag factor and 50 wt.% ilmenite was adequate to prevent solids sag in both dynamic and static conditions with sag factors of 0.33 and 0.51, respectively. Moreover, HPHT filtration results showed that adding ilmenite had no impact on filtration performance of the drilling fluid. The findings of this study show that the combined barite–ilmenite weighting material can be a good solution to prevent solids sag issues in water-based fluids; thus, drilling HPHT wells with such fluids would be safe and effective.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 33-37
Author(s):  
A. D. I. Sulaiman ◽  
M. B. Adamu ◽  
Usman Hassan ◽  
S. M. Aliyu

Progress in drilling engineering demands more sophistication from the drilling mud in order to enhance the usage of drilling fluids, hence numerous additives were introduced, and a simple fluid became a complicated mixture of liquid, solid and chemicals. Some of the challenges with the existing drilling fluid additives has to do with compatibility, degradability, safety, cost, and environmental friendliness. Studies have been carried out on the economic benefits of Cissus Populnea which includes in areas of food, medicine, shelter, and transport but much attention has been paid to its applications in the Oil and Gas industry. This study investigates the rheological properties of Cissus Populnea for application as drilling fluid additive (viscosifier) in Water Based Drilling Mud. Fresh roots, stems and leaves of cissus populnea were sourced from Bayara, Bauchi State. Some liquid exudates of cissus populnea were collected and stored for analysis while some of the samples were dried and grinded in to powdered form. Exudate of the samples were characterized by FTIR, XRD and XRF. Drilling mud was formulated with the samples cisssus populnea and bentonite at different temperatures. The rheology of the formulated drilling mud was investigated and compared with that formulated using bentonite and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). Results from X-ray Fluorescence analysis show that the chemical composition of Cissus populnea stem and root are similar when comparing their major components (In2O3 and CaO), while that of leaf has its major components to be In2O3 and Cl. Therefore, in this research work, experiments were conducted with only stem and leaf since stem and roots have common features. From the results of FTIR spectra, the stem of cissus populnea has an OH peak wavelength of 3487.42 cm-1 while that of leave is 3340.82 cm-1. The diffractogram of the stem of cissus populnea was observed at 2q = 22.67o which is very close to that of CMC (2θ = 20.31o) while the intense peaks of leaf were observed at around 28.65o. Viscosity of cissus populnea was investigated and found to be decreasing with the increase in temperature for stem exudate. While for leaf exudate, the viscosity was rather increasing with the increase in temperature at temperatures below 35 oC and then continue to decrease with the increase in temperature. The outcome of this research has confirmed the applicability of cissus populnea for drilling fluid additives, viscosifier.


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