Designing Drill-in Fluids by Using Ideal Packing Technique

Selecting bridging agents properly is a critical factor in designing non-damaging or low-damaging drill-in fluids. Historically, Abrams＇ rule has been used for this purpose. However, Abrams＇ rule only addresses the size of particle required to initiate a bridge. The rule does not give an optimum size nor an ideal packing sequence for minimizing fluid invasion and optimizing sealing. This paper elaborates an ideal packing approach to solving the sealing problem by sealing pores with different sizes, especially those large pores which usually make dominant contribution to permeability and thereby effectively preventing the solids and filtrate of drill-in fluids from invading into formations, compared with the conventionally used techniques. Practical software has been developed to optimize the blending proportion of several bridging agents, so as to achieve ideal packing effectiveness. The method and its use in selecting the best blending proportion of several bridging agents are also discussed in this paper. A carefully designed drill-in fluid by using the ideal packing technique （named the IPT fluid） for offshore drilling operations at the Weizhou Oilfield, Nanhai West Company, CNOOC is presented. The near 100% return permeabilities from the dynamic damage tests using reservoir cores demonstrated the excellent bridging effect provided by this drill-in fluid.

Experimental study of low-damage drilling fluid to minimize waterblocking of low-permeability gas reservoirs

This paper discusses the systematic design and development of low-damage drilling fluid to protect the low-permeability gas reservoir of the Sulige block in the Ordos Basin, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. Based on investigation of the geological characteristics and the potential formation damage of the Permian formation of the reservoir, waterblocking due to invasion of drilling or completion fluids was identified one of the most severe causes of damage to gas well deliverability. By adopting the phase trap prevention method, ideal packing theory, and film-forming technology, a lowdamage drilling fluid, sodium formate brine containing efficient waterblocking preventing surfactants, optimized temporary bridging agents （TBAs）, and film-forming agents has been developed. The performance of the new drilling fluid was evaluated by using a variety of techniques. The results show that the fluid has good rheological properties, good strong shale-swelling inhibition, good temporary plugging effect, ultra-low filtration, and good lubricity. It can efficiently minimize waterblocking and can be used to drill horizontal wells with minimal intervention of the reservoir in the Sulige Gas Field.

A new laboratory method for evaluating formation damage in fractured carbonate reservoirs

Natural carbonate core samples with artificial fractures are often used to evaluate the damage of fractured carbonate formations in the laboratory. It is shown that the most frequent error for evaluation results directly from the random width characterized by the artificial fractures. To solve this problem, a series of simulated fractured core samples made of stainless steel with a given width of fracture were prepared. The relative error for the width of artificial fracture decreased to 1%. The width of natural and artificial fractures in carbonate reservoirs can be estimated by image log data. A series of tests for formation damage were conducted by using the stainless steel simulated core samples flushed with different drilling fluids, such as the sulfonate/polymer drill-in fluid and the solids-flee drill-in fluid with or without ideal packing bridging materials. Based on the experimental results using this kind of simulated cores, a novel approach to the damage control of fractured carbonate reservoirs was presented. The effective temporary plugging ring on the end face of the simulated core sample can be observed clearly. The experimental results also show that the stainless steel simulated cores made it possible to visualize the solids and filtrate invasion.