Abstract
Tight environmental regulations coupled with the constant need to enhance water-based drilling mud performance for use in deeper formation where it can withstand high temperature, high pressure and high saline condition have always been an existential issue during drilling operations. This research compared the performance of biodiesel produced from waste vegetable oil with that of white oil 5#, used as additives in mud formulations. Their effectiveness was tested at high temperature high pressure, in the presence of monovalent and divalent electrolytes. The mud density, rheological behavior, yield point, fluid loss under high temperature and pressure, and cake thickness were examined. The biodiesel emulsion mud proved more stable compared to both the white oil emulsion mud and the water-based mud without oil additive under thermal and saline conditions. The biodiesel emulsion mud demonstrated low and stable mud viscosity under the different conditions studied. The fluid loss reduction was better for biodiesel emulsion mud with API fluid loss of 2.20 cm3 and high temperature high pressure filtration loss of 9.4 cm3, while white oil emulsion mud gave 6.40 and 18.40 cm3, respectively, for both parameters at 180 °C in calcium-contaminated mud. The biodiesel emulsion mud exhibited superior qualities of rheological properties compared to white oil emulsion mud at higher temperature and saline conditions. The rheological models of the white oil emulsion mud and biodiesel emulsion mud at room temperature followed Bingham plastic model, but at high temperature their rheogram approximated to Herschel–Bulkley model.
Highlights
The success of drilling oil and gas wells is mainly among other factors, dependent on the quality of drilling mud being circulated which performs various functions that may influence the drilling rate and the cost efficiency as well as ensuring the safety of the entire operation (Holland et al 2003)
Tight environmental regulations coupled with the constant need to enhance water-based drilling mud performance for use in deeper formation where it can withstand high temperature, high pressure and high saline condition have always been an existential issue during drilling operations
The fluid loss reduction was better for biodiesel emulsion mud with API fluid loss of 2.20 cm3 and high temperature high pressure filtration loss of 9.4 cm3, while white oil emulsion mud gave 6.40 and 18.40 cm3, respectively, for both parameters at 180 °C in calciumcontaminated mud
Summary
The success of drilling oil and gas wells is mainly among other factors, dependent on the quality of drilling mud being circulated which performs various functions that may influence the drilling rate and the cost efficiency as well as ensuring the safety of the entire operation (Holland et al 2003). Ester-based muds were first used to drill some wells in the North Sea in Norway in 1990, in UK in 1991 and the Gulf of Mexico in 1992 (Okorie et al 2015; Friedheim and Conn 1996) They are relatively stable at neutral conditions but are susceptible to hydrolysis at high temperatures in the presence of water in an alkali or acidic medium. This study in contrast to others centers on the production and examination of the performance of waste vegetable oil as additive in water-based bentonite mud in association with enhanced rheological behavior and filtration fluid loss control under high temperature, high pressure and saline field condition. Its effectiveness was compared with the produced waste vegetable oil biodiesel as additive in water-based drilling mud under simulated saline downhole condition. SMP sulfonated methyl phenol, CMC carboxymethyl cellulose sodium salt, SNPH sulfomethyl hunate and phenolic resin, Na2CO3 sodium carbonate
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