Fluid Loss Control in Water Base Mud Using Ferric Oxide Nanoparticles and Local Additives

Abstract

The success of well drilling operations is heavily dependent on the drilling fluid because drilling fluids cool down and lubricate the drill bit, remove cuttings, prevent formation instability, suspend cuttings and also cake off the permeable formations, thus retarding the passage of fluid into the formation. During drilling operations, the fluid part of the drilling fluid may be lost to the formation, a huge fluid loss lead to higher operational expenses. That is why, it is vital to design the drilling mud to minimize the mud invasion in to formation and prevent fluid loss. This study focused on improving the performance of water base drilling mud by the usage of ferric oxide nanoparticles and local additives such as corn cob powder from zea-mays and coconut husk powder from cocos nucifera as fluid loss control additives in the drilling mud. The laboratory measurements included measuring the filtrate loss using the standard API low temperature low pressure (LTLP) filter test, some properties of the mud such as the mud density and pH were measured using respective apparatus. Also, the filtration properties of water-based nano and local additive drilling fluids under static conditions were investigated. It was seen from the results that the lowest filtrate loss value of 14.4ml occurred for an addition of 1.0g of ferric oxide nanoparticles acting alone as the fluid lost material. Under API standard filtration test at LTLP, more than 70% reduction in fluid loss was achieved in the presence of 0.5 - 1.5 wt% nanoparticles. The results have also shown that the filter cake developed with the nano and local additive mud indicate thin filtration, which implies high potential for reducing the differential pressure sticking problem, as well as reducing formation damage and torque and drag problems while drilling. Nanoparticles (NPs) based drilling mud with specific characteristics is thus expected to play a promising role in controlling the fluid loss and other technical challenges faced with commercial drilling mud during oil and gas drilling Keywords: Coconut Husk, Corn Cobs, Drilling Mud, Ferric Oxide, Filtrate Loss, Fluid Loss Additive, Mud Cake Thickness, Nanoparticles DOI: 10.7176/CER/13-6-03 Publication date: October 31 st 2021