Performance Evaluation of Agarwood Distillation Waste as Retarder for High Strength Oilwell Cement

Abstract

Cement strength must be carefully maintained so that the cement is able to sustain formation stresses without failing. Such a mechanical failure in a cement sheath can cause a loss of annular isolation. A synthetic polymer cement retarder has been designed to provide extended pumping times for cement slurries, while having minimal effect on compressive strength development. However, it is difficult to select a retarder that can suit a wide range of field conditions. Fluid loss control can also be affected by the addition of a retarder, especially at high temperatures. Addition of retarder sometimes may increase the viscosity and pumping pressure of the slurry and may result in fracturing of the hydrocarbon bearing zone and costly job failure. The main idea for this study is to determine whether Agarwood waste from distillation process (AGW) can be used as a retarder in oil well cement with excellent compressive strength development. The compressive strength developments were evaluated at different curing time and particle sizes of AGW which are 90 μm, 150μm and 250μm. The performance of AGW slurries were compared with commercial retarder slurry. Apart from that, chemical analysis on AGW was conducted by using X-ray Fluorescent (XRF) to determine the presence of cementations component in this material. All cement testing procedures should follow API recommended specification 10B standard. From the results obtained, the performance of 250 μm of AGW is better than commercial retarder by 10% increment in the development of cement strength.