Application of Irvingia gabonensis, Manihot esculenta and Artocarpus altilis as rheological modifier in water-based drilling fluid

Abstract

The influence of natural polymers (cassava starch, breadfruit starch, bush mango seed and corn fibre) on the rheological properties of Uturu bentonite clay was investigated in this study towards developing a water-based drilling fluid. Before the fluid development, the additives were ball-milled to nano-sized particles for effective dispersion in the fluid. Individual effects of each additive on rheological properties (plastic viscosity (PV), apparent viscosity (AV), yield point (YP), consistency index (k) and flow index (n) of the formulated drilling fluid (DF) were initially evaluated using One-factor-at-time (OFAT) method to understand the heavy hitters. To gain insight to the interactive effects of these factors, a statistically designed experiment Central Composite Design (CCD) was used. Results from the experiments via CCD were analyzed and regression models were developed for each rheological property. The optimum rheological properties of the DF were 28.24 cp; 7.78 cp; 14.21 cp and 12.86 lb/100ft2, for µ600, PV, AV and YP, respectively. These properties indicate that the developed DF could be suitable for drilling in a typical oil well.