Study on rheology and filtration properties of field used mud using iron (III) oxide nanoparticles

Abstract

• Properties of field used mud changes due to aging in wellbore conditions. • Field used mud develops thin mud cake compared to laboratory prepared mud. • Field used mud shows improved properties at lower NPs concentrations. The inclusion of nanomaterials in laboratory prepared mud has recently become a common approach to determine the mud properties. As the properties of laboratory prepared mud change while circulating through the wellbore, it is essential to investigate the effect of nanoparticles on the properties of field used mud. Field used mud is taken from the ongoing drilling of a non-reservoir section (1200 to 2585 m) of an exploratory well; located in Srikail Gas field, Bangladesh. In this study, iron (III) oxide nanoparticles are introduced both in laboratory prepared and field used low solid non-dispersed water base mud at different concentrations of 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, and 3.0 wt%. Field used mud shows higher apparent viscosity, yield stress (1.61%), 10 s gel strength (100%) and 10 min gel strength (133.33%) compared to laboratory prepared mud at a nanoparticles concentration of 0.1 wt%. Moreover, the field used nano-base mud demonstrates superior filtration properties at lower concentrations compared to laboratory prepared nano-base mud. The addition of 0.1 wt% nanoparticles in field used mud reduces the filtrate volume and cake thickness by 40% and 47%, respectively. In most cases, the rheological and filtration properties of field used mud are found to be better than those of the laboratory prepared mud. The results also show that a low concentration of iron (III) oxide nanoparticles can be functioned as an additive in the mud system to get the better filtration and rheological properties.