Mustafa Hakan OZYURTKAN, Mehmet Serif ARSLAN, Yildiray PALABIYIK, Adil OZDEMİR, Yasin ERDOGAN

The Application of Borax as a Fresh Water-Based Drilling Fluid Additive at Different Temperature and Clay Contamination Conditions

To be able to provide stability for fresh water-based drilling fluids systems is still a considerable controversy in high-temperature and high clay-bearing environments. It is a well-known fact that fresh water-based drilling fluids are losing their stability in high-temperature environments. The viscosity and the water loss of these muds are increasing. It is even getting worse coupling with shale contamination. In order to get over these problems, different types of polymers are used as additives, which in the end might cause additional drilling-related issues and also an additional cost to overall drilling operations. The usage of borax as an additive is not that common in the drilling industry. Its effect on rheological and water loss properties is not very well-defined, especially at high temperatures and in a contaminated environment. The main goal of this study is to test borax as a fresh water-based drilling fluid additive under elevated temperature and contamination conditions. The variation of rheological properties is investigated with a conventional viscometer. The water loss properties are examined using a high-temperature, high-pressure (HTHP) water loss testing apparatus. Numerous tests were performed at temperature conditions ranging from room temperature to 200 0F (93 °C) and a filtration pressure of 100 psi (0.7 MPa). The experiments were also repeated using OCMA (Oil Company Materials Association) clay to mimic shale contamination. The experiments have resulted in acceptable rheological properties and filtration rates for the fresh water-based mud at high temperatures. The experimental results promise that properly formulated fresh water-based drilling fluids with borax might be a potential choice in wells expecting high temperature and shale contamination besides their low-cost advantages.

Keywords:

Borax, Boron, Water-based drilling fluid additive, High-temperature, Clay contamination,

PDF

___

Ainley, B.R., Nimerick, K H., Card, R.J., 1993. High-Temperature, Borate-Crosslinked Fracturing Fluids: A Comparison of Delay Methodology. In SPE Production Operations Symposium.
API RP13B-1, 2004. Recommended practice for field testing water-based drilling fluids. 3rd Edition, July 2004.
Bensted, J., Callaghan, I.C., Lepre, A., 1991. Comparative study of the efficiency of various borate compounds as set-retarders of class G oilwell cement. Cement and Concrete Research 21 (4), 663-668.
Bourgoyne, A.T., Millheim K.K., Chenrvert, M.E., Young, F.S. 1991. Applied Drilling Engineering. Second Printing. Richardson, TX, USA Society of Petroleum Engineers.
Greenhill-Hooper, M.J., 2011. 17 Oilfield Technology and Applications Involving Borates. Boron Science: New Technologies and Applications, 417-452.
Harris, P.C., 1993. Chemistry and rheology of borate-crosslinked fluids at temperatures to 300F. Journal of Petroleum Technology 45 (3), 264-269.
Harris, P.C., van Batenburg, D., 1999. A comparison of freshwater-and seawater-based borate-crosslinked fracturing fluids. In SPE International Symposium on Oilfield Chemistry.
Korzilius, J., Minks, P., 2001. U.S. Patent No. 6,239,081. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Krishnan, S., Abyat, Z., Chok, C., 2016. Characterization of boron-based nanomaterial enhanced additive in water-based drilling fluids: a study on lubricity, drag, ROP and fluid loss improvement. In SPE/IADC Middle East Drilling Technology Conference and Exhibition.
Ozdemir, A., Yasar, E., Palabiyik, Y., Gullu, A., 2022. Relationship Between Rates of Penetration and Costs per Meter of Tricone Rock Bits: Cases from Southeastern Anatolia and Thrace Basins (Turkey). International Journal of Earth Sciences Knowledge and Applications 4 (1), 79-99.
Özkan, A., Kaplan, B.M., 2019. Investigation of the effects on rheological and filtration properties of water-based drilling mud of boron minerals: An experimental study. Pamukkale Üniversitesi Mühendislik Bilimleri Dergisi 25 (7), 884-888.
Szymanski, M.J., Lewis, S.J., Spindler, C., Fenchl, A., 2008. U.S. Patent No. 7, 399,355. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Toka, B., 2008. Use of Borates as an Activating Agent for Drilling Mud Bentonite. (PhD Thesis). Middle East Technical University, Ankara.
Werheit, H., Filipov, V., Kuhlmann, U., Schwarz, U., Armbrüster, M., Leithe-Jasper, A., Tanaka, T., Higashi, I., Lundström, T., Gurin, V.N., 2010. Raman effect in icosahedralboron- richsolids, Science and Technology of Advanced Materials 11 (2), 1-27.