Petroleum Engineering – Drilling
Afshar Alihosseini; Ali Hassan Zadeh; Majid Monajjemi; Mahdi Nazary Sarem
Abstract
Wellbore stability is one of the challenges in the drilling industry. Shale formation is one of the most problematic rocks during drilling because the rock has very low permeability and tiny pores (nanometers). This study assesses the viability of the alumina nanoparticles (Al2O3) in water-based mud. ...
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Wellbore stability is one of the challenges in the drilling industry. Shale formation is one of the most problematic rocks during drilling because the rock has very low permeability and tiny pores (nanometers). This study assesses the viability of the alumina nanoparticles (Al2O3) in water-based mud. The effectiveness of alumina nanoparticles as a mud additive in improving the rheological properties in water-based drilling mud is investigated. The alumina nanoparticles have specific chemical and physical properties, such as high compressive strength, high hardness, and high thermal conductivity. These properties improve the properties of water-based drilling mud, reduce filtration loss, and meet environmental regulations. The results of experimental data show that alumina nanoparticle improves rheological properties such as yield point gel strength (GEL 10 s, Gel 10 min) of water-based drilling that can be utilized to enhance the significant feature of drilling mud, particularly in rheology and filtration. Preliminary data demonstrated that alumina nanoparticles, a nano additive, possess proper properties like thermal stability, rheology enhancement, fluid loss control, and lubrication. It is likely to encounter shale formation plug and significant improvement formation pressure. In addition, alumina nanoparticles reduced 60% API/HPHT fluid loss by 60% compared to the blank sample. The most striking feature is that nanofluid improved shale integrity between 60% and 70% compared to the blank sample. Further, the experimental data of the CT scan show that the mud cakes formed by each of fluid samples, including nanoparticles containing alpha- and gamma-alumina base are more cohesive and cause an integrated filter cake on the well.
Mostafa Sedaghatzadeh; Abbasali Khodadadi; Mohammad reza Tahmasebi birgani
Abstract
Designing drilling fluids for drilling in deep gas reservoirs and geothermal wells is a major challenge. Cooling drilling fluids and preparing stable mud with high thermal conductivity are of great concern. Drilling nanofluids, i.e. a low fraction of carbon nanotube (CNT) well dispersed in mud, may enhance ...
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Designing drilling fluids for drilling in deep gas reservoirs and geothermal wells is a major challenge. Cooling drilling fluids and preparing stable mud with high thermal conductivity are of great concern. Drilling nanofluids, i.e. a low fraction of carbon nanotube (CNT) well dispersed in mud, may enhance the mixture thermal conductivity compared to the base fluids. Thus, they are potentially useful for advanced designing high temperature and high pressure (HTHP) drilling fluids. In the present study, the impacts of CNT volume fraction, ball milling time, functionalization, temperature, and dispersion quality (by means of scanning electron microscopy, SEM) on the thermal and rheological properties of water-based mud are experimentally investigated. The thermal conductivities of the nano-based drilling fluid are measured with a transient hot wire method. The experimental results show that the thermal conductivity of the water-based drilling fluid is enhanced by 23.2% in the presence of 1 vol% functionalized CNT at room temperature; it increases by 31.8% by raising the mud temperature to 50 °C. Furthermore, significant improvements are seen in the rheological properties—such as yield point, filtration properties, and annular viscosity—of the CNTmodified drilling fluid compared to the base mud, which pushes forward their future development.
