The Feasibility Study of Using Stable Micro-bubbles Particles with Controlled Rheological Properties in Low Pressure Reservoirs Drilling

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Faculty of Research & Development Upstream Oil Industry, Petroleum Research Division, Research Institute of Petroleum Industry, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Drilling low-pressure reservoirs is associated with economic and technical issues; thus the development of these fields has been non-profitable. One of the major drilling problems of these wells is the uncontrollable loss of mud in fractures. Nowadays, new drilling technologies use sustainable micro bubbles with diameters between 10 and 100 micrometers and polymer to solve this problem. Unique characteristics of micro bubbles in water-based mud forms an inner elastic, firm, and solid connection in pores and fractures, which minimizes the penetration of tiny air bubbles deep into the network. This is simply a micro blockage which is washed and goes away with a reverse flow when the production starts and this reduces the cost of the stimulation processes of the well. These are non-Newtonian fluids and their apparent viscosity is higher in comparison with the water-based mud. Their behavior is similar to pseudoplastic drilling fluids and they can be modeled with a power law model. This study investigated the rheological properties of micro bubbles drilling fluids with different concentrations of polymer and surfactants; it was shown that increasing the surfactant concentration increased the viscosity of micro bubbles and the size of bubbles at a fixed polymer concentration; also, the size of the bubbles was reduced by increasing polymer concentration at a fixed amount of surfactant

Keywords

References

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Journal of Petroleum Research
Volume 25, Issue 81 - Serial Number 81
May and June 2015
Pages 78-83

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