An approach to improve the cuttings carrying capacity of nanosilica based muds

Rheological and filtration properties of water based muds play vital roles to have a good drilling efficiency in high pressure high temperature (HPHT) environments. However, there are many occasions where controlling the variation of mud properties due to disintegration of additives is barely possib...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Elochukwu, Henry, Gholami, Raoof, Sham Dol, Sharuf
Format: Journal Article
Published: Elsevier 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/52007
_version_ 1848758821314363392
author Elochukwu, Henry
Gholami, Raoof
Sham Dol, Sharuf
author_facet Elochukwu, Henry
Gholami, Raoof
Sham Dol, Sharuf
author_sort Elochukwu, Henry
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Rheological and filtration properties of water based muds play vital roles to have a good drilling efficiency in high pressure high temperature (HPHT) environments. However, there are many occasions where controlling the variation of mud properties due to disintegration of additives is barely possible, resulting in stuck pipe, kick incident or even loss of wells. Although there have been many studies in the past indicating the application of nanosilica in improving the flirtation control of water base muds, there are almost no studies on the significant reduction of the yield point which may cause a huge decrease in cutting carrying capacity of muds and rate of penetrations. The aim of this study is to propose an approach to improve the filtration control of water based muds using nanosilica while maintaining the rheology by using a cationic surfactant. The results obtained from zeta potential measurements indicated that bentonite and nanosilica particles are both negatively charged at different ranges of pH, which would result in reduction of the yield point of the mud samples containing nanosilica. This issue was resolved by employing a cationic surfactant and following certain procedures. Filtration tests conducted under LPLT and HPHT conditions indicated that adding modified nanosilica into the mud samples creates a thin and low permeability filter cake without having any negative impacts on the rheology.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T09:50:05Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-52007
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T09:50:05Z
publishDate 2017
publisher Elsevier
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-520072019-03-15T05:47:29Z An approach to improve the cuttings carrying capacity of nanosilica based muds Elochukwu, Henry Gholami, Raoof Sham Dol, Sharuf Rheological and filtration properties of water based muds play vital roles to have a good drilling efficiency in high pressure high temperature (HPHT) environments. However, there are many occasions where controlling the variation of mud properties due to disintegration of additives is barely possible, resulting in stuck pipe, kick incident or even loss of wells. Although there have been many studies in the past indicating the application of nanosilica in improving the flirtation control of water base muds, there are almost no studies on the significant reduction of the yield point which may cause a huge decrease in cutting carrying capacity of muds and rate of penetrations. The aim of this study is to propose an approach to improve the filtration control of water based muds using nanosilica while maintaining the rheology by using a cationic surfactant. The results obtained from zeta potential measurements indicated that bentonite and nanosilica particles are both negatively charged at different ranges of pH, which would result in reduction of the yield point of the mud samples containing nanosilica. This issue was resolved by employing a cationic surfactant and following certain procedures. Filtration tests conducted under LPLT and HPHT conditions indicated that adding modified nanosilica into the mud samples creates a thin and low permeability filter cake without having any negative impacts on the rheology. 2017 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/52007 10.1016/j.petrol.2017.03.008 Elsevier fulltext
spellingShingle Elochukwu, Henry
Gholami, Raoof
Sham Dol, Sharuf
An approach to improve the cuttings carrying capacity of nanosilica based muds
title An approach to improve the cuttings carrying capacity of nanosilica based muds
title_full An approach to improve the cuttings carrying capacity of nanosilica based muds
title_fullStr An approach to improve the cuttings carrying capacity of nanosilica based muds
title_full_unstemmed An approach to improve the cuttings carrying capacity of nanosilica based muds
title_short An approach to improve the cuttings carrying capacity of nanosilica based muds
title_sort approach to improve the cuttings carrying capacity of nanosilica based muds
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/52007