Elsevier

Powder Technology

Volume 360, 15 January 2020, Pages 1157-1166
Powder Technology

Effect of perlite particles on the filtration properties of high-density barite weighted water-based drilling fluid

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2019.11.030Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Introduce “perlite” as new drilling fluid additive

  • Reduction in filter cake thickness by 30%, and filtration volume by 40% as consequence of perlite addition.

  • The cutting carrying capacity and sealing properties were improved due to the perlite addition.

Abstract

There are many factors affecting the filtration of drilling fluid into the drilled formation. The adverse impact of the filtration on the well productivity calls for concerted research effort towards developing promising solutions to minimize the volume of mud filtration and solid invasion. This study investigates the potentials of perlite as a filtration control agent under high pressure conditions. Perlite is an amorphous volcanic glass that occurs naturally and abundantly. Perlite was added to a high-density barite weighted drilling fluid at different concentrations. For the different perlite concentrations, fluid loss test was conducted to form filter cakes. NMR measurements were performed before and after fluid invasion and filter cake deposition to evaluate the amount and particle size distribution of the solids that invaded the core samples. The results showed that the drilling fluid formulations containing perlite controlled filtration loss and mud particles invasion better than standard barite weighted fluids.

Introduction

Natural resources such as gas and oil reservoirs within subsurface geological rock formations can be extracted via drilled wells. These reservoirs can be located at shallow or profound depths. A drilling fluid is required to achieve several functions such as to remove drill cuttings and minimize formation damage. Innovative research works are being explored in the area of drilling fluid additives with the ultimate goal of identifying new materials as additives that will improve drilling efficiency and reduce formation damage at a low cost. Such new drilling fluids materials are also required to be tested according to the American Petroleum Institute (API) procedures for testing drilling fluid [[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]].

Deep oil and gas wells are becoming more common in the industry to cover the high demand for energy around the globe. During deep drilling of high-pressure oil and gas wells, high concentration of weighting material is often added to the drilling fluid mixture to suppress and control downhole pressure by increasing the drilling fluid density. Weighting materials such as barite and ilmenite are commonly used because of their high specific gravity and low cost [7]. High density drilling fluid can prevent an unscheduled entry of formation fluid into the well (a phenomenon called “kick”) by exerting a sizeable hydrostatic pressure over the formation, especially in deep wells. In such cases, an overbalanced drilling condition ensues, where the hydrostatic pressure of the drilling fluid is higher than that of the formation being drilled. In an overbalanced drilling condition with a substantial pressure gradient, fine particles can invade the formation and plug rock pore throats. Plugging of the pore throats can significantly reduce the productivity of the well [[8], [9], [10]]. It is therefore desirable that the drilling fluid form a thin and impermeable filter cake that reduces the amount of drilling fluid that enters the formation. An essential function of a filter cake is to provide excellent sealing properties that minimize permeation of the drilling fluid and solids into the formation, as well as withstand a high differential overbalance pressure [[11], [12], [13], [14]].

Over the years, rigorous research has been dedicated to improve the properties of the drilling fluids. Each drilling fluid additive has a profound impact on the properties of the mud and hence its function. Various additives have been developed such as polymers to enhance drilling mud rheology, bentonite to improve hole cleaning capacity of the mud, bridging agents to control formation damage and others [[15], [16], [17], [18], [19]]. Recent advances in drilling fluid research involve the use of nanoparticles to further improve the performance of drilling fluids [[20], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30]]. Different nanoparticles such as aluminum-oxide and silica-nanoparticles were tested for barite drilling fluids. They improve drilling fluid properties in terms of thermal stability, degradations and the rheological properties [25]. They can also reduce the filter loss and the filter cake thickness [22]. In addition, they can improve hole cleaning, solid transport process and wellbore stability while minimizing shale swelling [31,32]. However, nanomaterials are inherently expensive, which may restrict their use at a field scale [33].

Different techniques for characterizing drilling fluid and filtration properties are reported in the literature [14,34,35]. Computed tomography (CT) scan approach was used to evaluate the filter cake porosity [14,34] and the solid invasion depth. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was recently introduced to evaluate secondary formation damage after removal of barite filter cake [36]. Furthermore, analytical tools such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and x- ray diffraction (XRD) were used to assess the structure and mineralogy of the filter cake [10,19].

This study investigates the viability of perlite as an effective additive to control solid and filtration invasion when drilling with a high-density drilling fluid. The investigated material is inexpensive [37], environment friendly [37,38], and was evaluated to ensure that it: can form a thin and impermeable filter cake, does not have an adverse impact on the primary properties of barite weighted water-based drilling fluid, and does not cause damage to the formation. Filter cake filtration properties (such as porosity and thickness of the filter cake, concentration and invasion profile of the mud solids, and filtrates volume) were characterized using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), and X-ray computed tomography (CT) as a function of different concentrations of perlite particles.

Section snippets

Perlite

Perlite refers to an amorphous volcanic glass with a relatively high water content, typically formed by the hydration of obsidian [38]. An unmodified (i.e., raw and unexpanded) perlite occurs naturally and has the capability to expand when subjected to heat and form expanded perlite [38]. Perlite softens when heated to high temperatures which make the trapped water in the structure of perlite vaporizes, thus expanding the material to 7–16 times its original volume [38]. Perlite may also be

Results and discussions

This section presents the effect of perlite on the rheological and filtration loss properties of the drilling fluid. In the first subsection, we present the results of the rheological properties for the drilling fluid before and after adding perlite at different concentrations. In the subsequent subsections, we discussed the effect of perlite on filtration properties of the drilling fluid. The effect of perlite on the mud filtration property was evaluated using five different performance

Conclusion

A suite of NMR and CT imaging studies were conducted to investigate the role of perlite in controlling solid invasion profile in porous media. The performance of the perlite was evaluated using different filtration properties. An optimum perlite concentration exists beyond which, the filtration performance may be impaired. We found out that at a perlite concentration of 1 lb./bbl is technically and economically sufficient to drastically improve the filtration properties of barite-based drilling

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgement

The authors a grateful to the College of Petroleum Engineering and Geosciences at King Fahd University Petroleum and minerals for the research support. We also acknowledge the help of Syed Rizwanullah and Rahul Salin for their help in the laboratory. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for their critical review.

References (49)

  • K. Anoop et al.

    Rheology of a colloidal suspension of carbon nanotube particles in a water-based drilling fluid

    Powder Technol.

    (2019)
  • R. Saboori et al.

    Improvement of rheological, filtration and thermal conductivity of bentonite drilling fluid using copper oxide/polyacrylamide nanocomposite

    Powder Technol.

    (2019)
  • R. Rafati et al.

    Effect of nanoparticles on the modifications of drilling fluids properties: a review of recent advances

    J. Pet. Sci. Eng.

    (2018)
  • N.V. Boyou et al.

    Experimental investigation of hole cleaning in directional drilling by using nano-enhanced water-based drilling fluids

    J. Pet. Sci. Eng.

    (2019)
  • B.S. Bageri et al.

    Evaluation of secondary formation damage caused by the interaction of chelated barite with formation rocks during filter cake removal

    J. Pet. Sci. Eng.

    (2019)
  • M.L. Torres et al.

    Lightweight pozzolanic materials used in mortars: evaluation of their influence on density, mechanical strength and water absorption

    Cem. Concr. Compos.

    (2009)
  • M. Taherishargh et al.

    On the mechanical properties of heat-treated expanded perlite-aluminium syntactic foam

    Mater. Des.

    (2014)
  • B.S. Ba geri et al.

    Single stage filter cake removal of barite weighted water based drilling fluid

    J. Pet. Sci. Eng.

    (2017)
  • J.J. Howard et al.

    Determination of pore size distribution in sedimentary rocks by proton nuclear magnetic resonance

    Mar. Pet. Geol.

    (1992)
  • R.L. Kleinberg

    Utility of NMR T2 distributions, connection with capillary pressure, clay effect, and determination of the surface relaxivity parameter Ρ2

    Magn. Reson. Imaging

    (1996)
  • V.C. Kelessidis et al.

    Optimal determination of rheological parameters for Herschel-Bulkley drilling fluids and impact on pressure drop, velocity profiles and penetration rates during drilling

    J. Pet. Sci. Eng.

    (2006)
  • M. Josh et al.

    Laboratory characterisation of shale properties

    J. Pet. Sci. Eng.

    (2012)
  • C. Dai et al.

    Oilfield Chemistry

    (2019)
  • R.M. Hodge et al.

    Evaluation and selection of drill-in-fluid candidates to minimize formation damage

    SPE Drill. Complet.

    (1997)
  • Cited by (57)

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text