Combined use of fly ash and silica to prevent the long-term strength retrogression of oil well cement set and cured at HPHT conditions

The long-term strength retrogression of silica-enriched oil well cement poses a significant threat to wellbore integrity in deep and ultra-deep wells, which is a major obstacle for deep petroleum and geothermal energy development. Previous attempts to address this problem has been unsatisfactory because they can only reduce the strength decline rate. This study presents a new solution to this problem by incorporating fly ash to the traditional silica-cement systems. The influences of fly ash and silica on the strength retrogression behavior of oil well cement systems directly set and cured under the condition of 200°C and 50 MPa are investigated. Test results indicate that the slurries containing only silica or fly ash experience severe strength retrogression from 2 to 30 d curing, while the slurries containing both fly ash and silica experience strength enhancement from 2 to 90 d. The strength test results are corroborated by further evidences from permeability tests as well as microstructure analysis of set cement. Composition of set cement evaluated by quantitative X-ray diffraction analyses with partial or no known crystal structure(PONKCS) method and thermogravimetry analyses revealed that the conversion of amorphous C-(A)-S-H to crystalline phases is the primary cause of long-term strength retrogression.The addition of fly ash can reduce the initial amount of C-(A)-S-H in the set cement, and its combined use with silica can prevent the crystallization of C-(A)-S-H, which is believed to be the working mechanism of this new admixture in improving long-term strength stability of oil well cement systems.

Improving the anti-collapse performance of water-based drilling fluids of Xinjiang Oilfield using hydrophobically modified silica nanoparticles with cationic surfactants

Wellbore instability,especially drilling with water-based drilling fluids(WBDFs)in complex shale for-mations,is a critical challenge for oil and gas development.The purpose of this paper is to study the feasibility of using hydrophobically modified silica nanoparticle(HMN)to enhance the comprehensive performance of WBDFs in the Xinjiang Oilfield,especially the anti-collapse performance.The effect of HMN on the overall performance of WBDFs in the Xinjiang Oilfield,including inhibition,plugging,lu-bricity,rheology,and filtration loss,was studied with a series of experiments.The mechanism of HMN action was studied by analyzing the changes of shale surface structure and chemical groups,wettability,and capillary force.The experimental results showed that HMN could improve the performance of WBDFs in the Xinjiang Oilfeld to inhibit the hydration swelling and dispersion of shale.The plugging and lubrication performance of the WBDFs in the Xinjiang Oilfield were also enhanced with HMN based on the experimental results.HMN had less impact on the rheological and filtration performance of the WBDFs in the Xinjiang Oilfield.In addition,HMN significantly prevented the decrease of shale strength.The potential mechanism of HMN was as follows.The chemical composition and structure of the shale surface were altered due to the adsorption of HMN driven by electrostatic attraction.Changes of the shale surface resulted in significant wettability transition.The capillary force of the shale was converted from a driving force of water into the interior to a resistance.In summary,hydrophobic nanoparticles presented afavorable application potential for WBDFs.

Preparation and characterization of supramolecular gel suitable for fractured formations

The excellent mechanical properties of supramolecular gel could adapt to the complex reservoir environment and had broad application prospects in the field of oil and gas drilling and production engineering.In this paper,a supramolecular gel based on hydrophobic association and hydrogen bonding was prepared by micellar copolymerization,which could be used to plug fractures and pores in formations.Supramolecular gel was a gel network system with high performance characteristics formed by self-assembly of non-covalent bond interaction.The rheological properties,mechanical mechanics,temperature resistance and swelling ability of supramolecular gel were studied.The results showed that the supramolecular gel had a dense three-dimensional network structure with open and interconnected pore structures,which could exhibit good rheological properties and strong viscoelastic recovery ability.The mechanical properties of the supramolecular gel were excellent,it had a tensile stress of 0.703 MPa and an elongation at break of 1803%.When the compressive strain was 96%,the compressive stress could reach 14.5 MPa.Supramolecular gel also showed good temperature resistance and swelling properties.At the aging temperature of 135℃,supramolecular gels still maintained good gel strength,and it only took 12 h to reach the equilibrium swelling ratio of 35.87 in 1%NaCl solution.It was also found that supramolecular gel in low concentration saline(1%NaCl solution)showed relatively faster swelling than high concentration saline(25%NaCl solution).The swelling process of the supramolecular gel was non-Fick diffusion(typeⅡ).This indicated that the organic/inorganic permeability network was well formed.Therefore,the diffusion rate of small molecules could be guaranteed to be equal to the relaxation rate of large molecules before and after the phase transition temperature.In addition to the diffusion of water molecules,the swelling process of the supramolecular gel was also affected by the relaxation of gel network and polymer chain segment,the interaction between water molecules and polymer network and the groups of polymer network and other factors.Supramolecular gel particles could be used as plugging materials for drilling fluids,which had excellent ability to plug formation fractures and pores.The plugging ability of the supramolecular gel was up to 6.7 MPa for 0.5 mm fracture width,and 9.6 MPa for porous media with 5 mD permeability.Compared with HT-PPG gel particles commonly used in oil fields,supramolecular gel particles had better plugging ability on fractures and porous media.The development and application of supramolecular gel had far-reaching significance for promoting the functional application of polymer materials in drilling and production engineering.

Synthesis and mechanism of environmentally friendly high temperature and high salt resistant lubricants

With the exploration and development of deep and ultra-deep oil and gas,high torque and high friction during the drilling of deep and ultra-deep wells become one of the key issues affecting drilling safety and drilling speed.Meanwhile,the high temperature and high salt problem in deep formations is prominent,which poses a major challenge to the lubricity of drilling fluids under high temperature and high salt.This paper reports an organic borate ester SOP as an environmentally friendly drilling fluid lubricant.The performance evaluation results show that when 1%lubricant SOP is added to the fresh water-based mud,the lubrication coefficient decreases from 0.631 to 0.046,and the reduction rate of lubrication coefficient is 92.7%.Under the conditions of 210℃ and 30%NaCl,the reduction rate of lubricating coefficient of the base slurry with 1%SOP was still remain 81.5%.After adding 1%SOP,the wear volume decreased by 94.11%compared with the base slurry.The contact resistance experiment during the friction process shows that SOP can form a thick adsorption film on the friction surface under high temperature and high salt conditions,thus effectively reducing the friction resistance.Molecular dynamics simulation shows that lubricant SOP can be physically adsorbed on the surface of drilling tool and borehole wall through hydrogen bond and van der Waals force.XPS analysis further shows that SOP adsorbs on the friction surface and reacts with metal atoms on the friction surface to form a chemically reactive film.Therefore,under high temperature and high salt conditions,the synergistic effect of physical adsorption film and chemical reaction film effectively reduces the frictional resistance and wear of the friction surface.In addition,SOP is non-toxic and easy to degrade.Therefore,SOP is a highly effective and environmentally friendly lubricant in high temperature and high salt drilling fluid.

Carbon nanotube enhanced water-based drilling fluid for high temperature and high salinity deep resource development

Drilling fluids face failure during drilling deep reservoir with high temperature and high salt.The experimental results show that high temperature and salinity reduce the negative charge on the surface of bentonite in the drilling fluid and cause the coalescence of bentonite particles.As a result,the particles coalesce,the grid structure is destroyed,and the rheological properties,rock-carrying capacity and filtration properties are lost.To resolve the foregoing,in this study,0.05-wt%carbon nanotubes are introduced into a 4%bentonite drilling fluid under conditions where the temperature and concentration of added Na Cl reach 180°C and 10 wt%,respectively.The carbon nanotubes adsorb on the bentonite surface and increase the space among bentonite particles.The steric hindrance prevents the coalescence of bentonite in high temperature and high salt environment.Thus bentonite maintains the small size distribution of bentonite and supports the bentonite grid structure in the drilling fluid.As a result,the rock-carrying capacity of the drilling fluid increases by 85.1%.Moreover,the mud cake formed by the accumulation of small-sized bentonite particles is dense;consequently,the filtration of bentonite drilling fluid reduced by 30.2%.

Double network self-healing hydrogel based on hydrophobic association and ionic bond for formation plugging

Self-healing hydrogels have attracted tremendous attention in the field of oil and gas drilling and production engineering because of their excellent self-healing performance after physical damage.In this study,a series of double network self-healing(DN_(SA))hydrogels based on hydrophobic association and ionic bond were prepared for plugging pores and fractures in formations in oil and gas drilling and production engineering.The mechanical,rheological,and self-healing properties of the DN_(SA)hydrogels were investigated.Results revealed that the DN_(SA)hydrogels exhibited excellent mechanical properties with a tensile stress of 0.67 MPa and toughness of 7069 kJ/cm^(3) owing to the synergistic effect of the double network.In addition,the DN_(SA)hydrogels exhibited excellent compression resistance,notch insensitivity,and self-healing properties.The DN_(SA)-2 hydrogel was granulated and made into gel particles with different particle sizes and used as a plugging agent.The self-healing mechanism of DN_(SA)-2 hydrogel particles in fractures was explored,and it’s plugging effect on fractures of different widths and porous media of different permeabilities were investigated.Experimental results revealed that the plugging capacity of the DN_(SA)-2 hydrogel particles for a fracture with width of 5 mm and a porous medium with a permeability of 30μm^(2) was 3.45 and 4.21 MPa,respectively,which is significantly higher than those of commonly used plugging agents in the oilfield.The DN_(SA)hydrogels with excellent mechanical and self-healing properties prepared in this study will provide a new approach for applying hydrogels in oil and gas drilling and production engineering.

Plugging performance and mechanism of an oil-absorbing gel for lost circulation control while drilling in fractured formations

Lost circulation of drilling fluid is one of the most common engineering problems in the drilling process of fractured formations.In this study,an oil-absorbing polymer gel synthesized using compound monomers with rigid and flexible chains was applied to control the oil-based drilling fluid loss while drilling.The microstructure,oil-absorbing performance,and plugging performance the gel was investigated.A large number of dense pores on the surface of the gel were observed,which allowed the oil molecules to enter the internal space of the gel.The initial oil absorption capacity of the gel was fast,and it increased with the increase in the temperature and decrease in the particle size,reaching 20.93 g/g at140℃.At a high temperature of 140℃,the bearing pressure capacity of the gel formula containing particles of different particle sizes reached 7.6 MPa for a fracture of a width of 3 mm,showing that the oil-absorbing gel have excellent plugging performance at high temperature.Plugging mechanism of the gel was investigated through visualized fracture plugging experiments.Results show that the dynamic migratio n,particle-swelling,particle-bridging,particle-aggregation,deformation-filling,and compaction-plugging contribute to the whole lost circulation control process,reflecting that the plugging performance can be effectively enhanced by improving the aggregation and filling degrees of the gel with different particle sizes.

Notoginsenoside as an environmentally friendly shale inhibitor in water-based drilling fluid

The demand for non-toxic and biodegradable shale inhibitors is growing in the drilling industry.In this paper,the effect of notoginsenoside(NS)as a new,environmentally friendly inhibitor of shale hydration is systematically studied for the first time.The inhibition performance of NS was evaluated via inhibition evaluation tests,including mud ball immersion tests,linear expansion tests,shale rolling recovery tests,and compressive strength tests.The inhibition mechanism of NS was analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR),contact angle measurements,particle size distribution determination,thermogravimetric analysis(TGA),and scanning electron microscopy(SEM).The experimental results demonstrate that NS is able to adhere to the clay surface,forming a hydrophobic film that prevents the entry of water molecules and inhibiting the hydration dispersion of the clay.Because of this,NS can maintain the original state of bentonite pellets in water,which can effectively reduce the swelling rate of bentonite,increase the recovery rate of shale drill cuttings,maintain the strength of the shale,and therefore maintain the stability of the borehole wall during drilling.In addition,NS is non-toxic,degradable,and compatible with water-based drilling fluids.The above advantages make NS a promising candidate for use as an environmentally friendly shale inhibitor.

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

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.

A micro-crosslinked amphoteric hydrophobic association copolymer as high temperature-and salt-resistance fluid loss reducer for water-based drilling fluids

During ultradeep oil and gas drilling,fluid loss reducers are highly important for water-based drilling fluids,while preparing high temperature-and salt-resistance fluid loss reducers with excellent rheology and filtration performance remains a challenge.Herein,a micro-crosslinked amphoteric hydrophobic association copolymer(i.e.,DADC)was synthesized using N,N-dimethyl acrylamide,diallyl dimethyl ammonium chloride,2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid,hydrophobic monomer,and pentaerythritol triallyl ether crosslinker.Due to the synergistic effects of hydrogen bonds,electrostatic interaction,hydrophobic association,and micro-crosslinking,the DADC copolymer exhibited outstanding temperature-and salt-resistance.The rheological experiments have shown that the DADC copolymer had excellent shear dilution performance and a certain degree of salt-responsive viscosity-increasing performance.The DADC copolymer could effectively adsorb on the surface of bentonite particles through electrostatic interaction and hydrogen bonds,which bring more negative charge to the bentonite,thus improving the hydration and dispersion of bentonite particles as well as the colloidal stability of the drilling fluids.Moreover,the drilling fluids constructed based on the DADC copolymer exhibited satisfactory rheological and filtration properties(FLHTHP=12 m L)after aging at high temperatures(up to200℃)and high salinity(saturated salt)environments.Therefore,this work provided new insights into designing and fabricating high-performance drilling fluid treatment agents,demonstrating good potential applications in deep and ultradeep drilling engineering.