High-temperature corrosion of phosphate completion fluid and corrosion inhibition method by membrane transformation

By analyzing the corrosion of phosphate completion fluid on the P110 steel at 170 °C, the high-temperature corrosion mechanism of phosphate completion fluid was revealed, and a corrosion inhibition method by membrane transformation was proposed and an efficient membrane-forming agent was selected. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images, X-ray energy spectrum and X-ray diffraction results were used to characterize the microscopic morphology, elemental composition and phase composition of the precipitation membrane on the surface of the test piece. The effect and mechanism of corrosion inhibition by membrane transformation were clarified. The phosphate completion fluid eroded the test piece by high-temperature water vapor and its hydrolyzed products to form a membrane of iron phosphate corrosion product. By changing the corrosion reaction path, the Zn2+ membrane-forming agent could generate KZnPO4 precipitation membrane with high temperature resistance, uniform thickness and tight crystal packing on the surface of the test piece, which could inhibit the corrosion of the test piece, with efficiency up to 69.63%. The Cu2+ membrane-forming agent electrochemically reacted with Fe to precipitate trace elemental Cu on the surface of the test piece, thus forming a protective membrane, which could inhibit metal corrosion, with efficiency up to 96.64%, but the wear resistance was poor. After combining 0.05% Cu2+ and 0.25% Zn2+, a composite protective membrane of KZnPO4 crystal and elemental Cu was formed on the surface of the test piece. The corrosion inhibition efficiency reached 93.03%, which ensured the high corrosion inhibition efficiency and generated a precipitation membrane resistant to temperature and wear.

Novel Water-Based Drilling and Completion Fluid Technology to Improve Wellbore Quality During Drilling and Protect Unconventional Reservoirs

The efficient exploration and development of unconventional oil and gas are critical for increasing the self-sufficiency of oil and gas supplies in China.However,such operations continue to face serious problems(e.g.,borehole collapse,loss,and high friction),and associated formation damage can severely impact well completion rates,increase costs,and reduce efficiencies.Water-based drilling fluids possess certain advantages over oil-based drilling fluids(OBDFs)and may offer lasting solutions to resolve the aforementioned issues.However,a significant breakthrough with this material has not yet been made,and major technical problems continue to hinder the economic and large-scale development of unconventional oil and gas.Here,the international frontier external method,which only improves drilling fluid inhibition and lubricity,is expanded into an internal-external technique that improves the overall wellbore quality during drilling.Bionic technologies are introduced into the chemical material synthesis process to imitate the activity of life.A novel drilling and completion fluid technique was developed to improve wellbore quality during drilling and safeguard formation integrity.Macroscopic and microscopic analyses indicated that in terms of wellbore stability,lubricity,and formation protection,this approach could outperform methods that use typical OBDFs.The proposed method also achieves a classification upgrade from environmentally protective drilling fluid to an ecologically friendly drilling fluid.The developed technology was verified in more than 1000 unconventional oil and gas wells in China,and the results indicate significant alleviation of the formation damage attributed to borehole collapse,loss,and high friction.It has been recognized as an effective core technology for exploiting unconventional oil and gas resources.This study introduces a novel research direction for formation protection technology and demonstrates that observations and learning from the natural world can provide an inexhaustible source of ideas and inspire the creation of original materials,technologies,and theories for petroleum engineering.

Research and application of non-clay low damage temporary bridging drilling/completion fluids system

Following the basic theory of protecting gas-reservoirs from damage with the temporary bridging technology,inert calcium carbonate (CaCO3) particles,whose diameter is consistent with the size of pores or apertures in the reservoir,were selected as the bridging agent,and modified resolvable starch was selected as filtration loss reducing particles to form the non-clay low damage temporary bridging drilling/completion fluids system (NLTDFS). Under the simulated condition of the well bottom during real drilling,NLTDFS was used to conduct dynamic and static damage experiments of cores for 48 hours,respectively,and then the experimented cores were permeated with pure nitrogen from the undamaged end to the damaged one to measure their recovery of permeability. The results showed that the permeability recovery rate of the core reached 90% or so,and the damaged depth was less than 1 cm,which demonstrates that NLTDFS has higher temporary bridging effectiveness and lower damage to the gas-reservoir than other drilling fluids system. NLTDFS has been used to drill many horizontal wells,and four of them have obtained high yield of natural gas. The yield of natural gas of LP1 well reached 85×104 m3/day after completion with the rump pipe. The formation of the stable well wall and smooth drilling led to an API loss less than 4 mL and an HTHP loss less than 15 mL.

Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquids as an Anticorrosive Agent for Completion Fluid Design

Most of the onshore and offshore oil and gas reservoirs are facing operational challenges due to high temperature and high salinity, thus requiring advanced techniques for realizing the ex- pected oil recovery with the use of specially designed chemicals. During oil and gas well development, completion fluids, which are solids-free liquids, are used to complete an oil or gas well. Completion flu- ids consisting of brines are primarily used for oil and gas well stabilization and are corrosive in nature. There is a need to develop additives to be added with completion fluids to address the corrosive nature. The present investigation involved the usage of two imidazolium ionic liquids （ILs） as corrosion inhibi- tors for mild steel in various completion brine （CaCI2, HCOOCs and ZnBr2） fluids. The study was per- formed using various techniques, such as, potentiodynamic polarization, weight loss measurements and exposure studies. All the above techniques showed promising results which indicated that the ILs as corrosion inhibitors used were of the mixed-type following both physisorption and chemisorption over the mild steel surface. Among the two inhibitors studied here, l-octyl-3-methyl imidazolium chlo- ride （[OMIM]^＋[CI]^-） with longer alkyl chain exhibited better inhibition efficiency and much lesser cor- rosion rate than 1-butyl-3-methyl imidazolium chloride （[BMIM]^＋[Ci]^-） with a shorter alkyl chain. The results obtained from various methodologies indicate that ionic liquids can be explored to develop anti-corrosive completion fluids suitable for oil and gas reservoirs.

Pitting Corrosion of 13Cr Steel in Oxygen-free Completion Fluids of Organic Salt

Corrosion behavior of 13Cr steel in oxygen-free completion fluids of the organic salt at 180℃ was studied. Cross-sectional morphologies of the corrosion products were observed by scanning electron microscopy. Energy dispersive spectrum （EDS） was used to study the element distribution of the corrosion product inside and outside the pits. The results show that the organic salt causes severe pitting corrosion of 13Cr steel. The width and depth of the pits increase simultaneously when the test duration prolongs, and potassium enriches inside the pits.

DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATIONS OF THE ELASTO-PLASTIC CELLULAR AUTOMATON

The paper presents the advancement and applications of the elasto-plastic cellular automaton （EPCA）, a simulator for rock mechanics and rock engineering. The most significant feature of EPCA lies in its ＇down-top＇ way of dealing with nonlinear behaviors of rocks. The theory, the basic idea and associated developments, including the definition of cellular automaton, the heterogeneous material model, constitutive relations, failure criteria, the post-yield softening scheme, the thermo-hydro-mechanical coupling process, are described. The applications are presented to show the ability of EPCA to model the rock failure process, fluid flow, heat transfer, and the coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical （THM） process etc.