COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF LOCAL AND FOREIGN BENTONITE AS DRILLING MUD IN NIGERIA PETROLEUM INDUSTRY

Abstract

The Bentonite samples were crushed to finer particles and sun dried for 5 days, using a mortal to obtain the powder form. Further, the bentonite powder is activated by chemical reaction with soda ash (Na2CO3) resulted in improved montmorillonite content. The activation process increased the clay yield and swelling power, bentonite sample was then modified using oxalic acid and CTMABr. Bentonite powder is calcined at temperature of 600 oC for 1 hour. Finally, a combination of some analytical techniques such as X-ray Flourescence (XRF), Infrared spectroscopy in transmission mode (FTIR), Thermal analysis (TGA/DTG) were employed to characterize From the characterization results it is reported that the chemical constituents of natural bentonite Phase are Al, Si, Ca,Fe and Ti. Wyoming silica, alumina, sodium and calcium contents for bentonites are (45 wt%, 17wt%, 2.7 wt%, 1.77 wt%; 61.55wt%, 20.55wt%, 2.41 wt% ,1.32 wt%; 61.80 wt%, 20.44 wt%, 2.1 wt%, 1.4 wt%; 48.35 wt% , 12.15 wt %, 3.65 wt%, 6.68 wt%) respectively. However, in this work the silica (SiO2) values of the Local and Foreign bentonites (48.16wt % and 49. 87wt %) are similar to the values reported by Nweke et al, (2015) [45 wt%]; Tabak et al., (2007) [48.35 wt%] respectively. This work is useful as reference materials for further studies and for policy decision making. Keywords: Bentonites, Petroleum Industry, Drilling Muds, Thermal Analysis, Infrared Spectroscopy.