scholarly journals Enhancing the Stability of Invert Emulsion Drilling Fluid for Drilling in High-Pressure High-Temperature Conditions

Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salaheldin Elkatatny

Drilling in high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) conditions is a challenging task. The drilling fluid should be designed to provide high density and stable rheological properties. Barite is the most common weighting material used to adjust the required fluid density. Barite settling, or sag, is a common issue in drilling HPHT wells. Barite sagging may cause many problems such as density variations, well-control problems, stuck pipe, downhole drilling fluid losses, or induced wellbore instability. This study assesses the effect of using a new copolymer (based on styrene and acrylic monomers) on the rheological properties and the stability of an invert emulsion drilling fluid, which can be used to drill HPHT wells. The main goal is to prevent the barite sagging issue, which is common in drilling HPHT wells. A sag test was performed under static (vertical and 45° incline) and dynamic conditions in order to evaluate the copolymer’s ability to enhance the suspension properties of the drilling fluid. In addition, the effect of this copolymer on the filtration properties was performed. The obtained results showed that adding the new copolymer with 1 lb/bbl concentration has no effect on the density and electrical stability. The sag issue was eliminated by adding 1 lb/bbl of the copolymer to the invert emulsion drilling fluid at a temperature >300 °F under static and dynamic conditions. Adding the copolymer enhanced the storage modulus by 290% and the gel strength by 50%, which demonstrated the power of the new copolymer to prevent the settling of the barite particles at a higher temperature. The 1 lb/bbl copolymer’s concentration reduced the filter cake thickness by 40% at 400 °F, which indicates the prevention of barite settling at high temperature.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renzhou Meng ◽  
Chengwen Wang ◽  
Xiliang Dong ◽  
Chao Xiong

Abstract Oil-based drilling fluid (OBDF) is an important means for offshore drilling, but it would affect the cementing quality. Nanoemulsions shows potential for OBDF removal, but how to prepare nanoemulsion meeting the engineering requirement is lack of good understanding. Moreover, nanoemulsions usually behave badly under low/high temperature, which would restrict the application. Revealing removal mechanisms of nanoemulsion and improving nanoemulsion stability at different temperature are of great significance. The nanoemulsion could rapidly spread on the wellbore surfaces, cause the adhering OBDF to curl into little droplets, and solubilize the removed OBDF. The removal efficiency can reach more than 98%. Low temperature and higher concentration of dispersed phase both increased the viscosity of nanoemulsions stabilized by surfactants. PEGs can induce the bridging of emulsion droplets at low temperature, leading to significant increase of nanoemulsions viscoelasticity at low temperature (around 5°C). To control the rheological properties of nanoemulsions, a hydrophobic association polymer, HAAP, was proposed. Nanoemulsions containing HAAP does not gel at low temperature (< 15°C). And the viscoelasticity of nanoemulsions increased slightly when the temperature is higher than 70°C because of the thermoassociating behavior of polymer, which can ensure the stability of the nanoemulsions at high temperature. This paper is helpful to establish a generic route for preparing nanoemulsions with controlled rheological properties under different temperature, which is benefit for their applications in offshore.


SPE Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Sidharth Gautam ◽  
Chandan Guria ◽  
Laldeep Gope

Summary Determining the rheology of drilling fluid under subsurface conditions—that is, pressure > 103.4 MPa (15,000 psi) and temperature > 450 K (350°F)—is very important for safe and trouble-free drilling operations of high-pressure/high-temperature (HP/HT) wells. As the severity of HP/HT wells increases, it is challenging to measure downhole rheology accurately. In the absence of rheology measurement tools under HP/HT conditions, it is essential to develop an accurate rheological model under extreme conditions. In this study, temperature- and pressure-dependence rheology of drilling fluids [i.e., shear viscosity, apparent viscosity (AV), and plastic viscosity (PV)] are predicted at HP/HT conditions using the fundamental momentum transport mechanism (i.e., kinetic theory) of liquids. Drilling fluid properties (e.g., density, thermal decomposition temperature, and isothermal compressibility), and Fann® 35 Viscometer (Fann Instrument Corporation, Houston, USA) readings at surface conditions, are the only input parameters for the proposed HP/HT shear viscosity model. The proposed model has been tested using 26 different types of HP/HT drilling fluids, including water, formate, oil, and synthetic oil as base fluids. The detailed error and the sensitivity analysis have been performed to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed model and yield comparative results. The proposed model is quite simple and may be applied to accurately predict the rheology of numerous drilling fluids. In the absence of subsurface rheology under HP/HT conditions, the proposed viscosity model may be used as a reliable soft-sensor tool for the online monitoring and control of rheology under downhole conditions while drilling HP/HT wells.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Nasiri ◽  
S. N. Ashrafizadeh ◽  
A. Ghalambor

Ester-based drilling fluids based on aliphatic esters were introduced in 1990. Esters can be synthesized from fatty acids and alcohols. Previous studies indicated that ester hydrolysis in drilling fluids happens only under certain conditions. In order for ester hydrolysis to occur, two primary conditions must be present: high temperature and excessive hydroxyl. When the temperature exceeds 300°F, ester hydrolysis can occur under the presence of excessive hydroxyl. Hydrolysis breaks down the ester component into its parent carboxylic acid and alcohol. The current study shows that the stability of ester-based drilling fluids at high temperature conditions depends on the composition so that the selection of proper components and additives such as emulsifiers, stabilizers, copolymers, viscosifiers, and rheological modifiers can increase the temperature stability of the fluid. Hereby, the application of an ester-based drilling fluid is improved up to 350°F. The composition of the provided fluid is unique in the view point of its higher thermal stability against the previous formulations provided in literature. Furthermore, the experimental results of this study show the favorable effect of hot-rolling pressure on barite sag and electrical stability of the mud, i.e., increasing the pressure at three particular temperatures of 300°F, 325°F, and 350°F reduced the barite sag and at some instances increased the electrical stability.


2001 ◽  
Vol 120 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 237-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Soignard ◽  
Maddury Somayazulu ◽  
Ho-Kwang Mao ◽  
Jianjun Dong ◽  
Otto F. Sankey ◽  
...  

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