IADC/SPE-180523-MS

Rheology Modification for Safe Cementing of Low-ECD Zones

Ravinder Gahlawat, Siva Rama Krishna Jandhyala, Vaishali Mishra, and Sandip Patil, Halliburton

Copyright 2016, IADC/SPE Asia Pacific Drilling Technology Conference

This paper was prepared for presentation at the IADC/SPE Asia Pacific Drilling Technology Conference held in Singapore, 22–24 August 2016.

This paper was selected for presentation by an IADC/SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s).
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Abstract
Long-term zonal isolation requires effective mud displacement. One best practice for achieving this is to
use the highest pumping rates allowable during cementing operations. However, in zones with a narrow
pressure window, fracture pressure sometimes does not support higher flow rates. This is because high
flow rates result in high friction pressures, which can exceed the fracture pressure of the formation. This
is an issue particularly in long horizontal wells. In such cases, fluid rheology is important for achieving
better displacement efficiency without inducing fractures.
The current work discusses a procedure in which the rheology of cement slurry can be tuned such that
good displacement efficiency is attained at sufficiently low flow rates. The tuning should be such that the
shear stress is almost invariant for varying shear rates. This reduces the friction pressures considerably
during placement. A hydraulics model was run on an example well configuration with a narrow margin
situation. Pressure response and displacement characteristics of two types of slurries were analyzed. These
include conventional and modified slurry, the latter of which was tuned for better mud displacement at low
flow rates.
The modified slurry showed an increase in yield point with a shear stress profile that was almost
invariant for the range of shear rates analyzed. A decrease in equivalent circulating density (ECD)
occurred as a result of rheology modification, and this resulted in avoiding ECDs exceeding the fracture
gradient at critical locations. Displacement efficiency increased by 10% when using the modified slurry
at the same pump rates as those used for the conventional slurry. On the other hand, when targeting the
same displacement efficiency as the conventional slurry, the required pump rates for the modified slurry
were lower.
This study indicates that better displacement can be attained through rheology modification, even by
using relatively low flow rates, thereby maintaining low ECDs to help ensure effective cementing
operations.

Introduction
Mature fields pose challenges to cement placement because of the narrow margin between pore pressures
and fracture pressures. Reverse cementing and other advanced placement techniques, such as managed
pressure cementing (MPC), have been employed successfully to achieve better displacement, minimizing
2 IADC/SPE-180523-MS

the risks of formation fracture or kick. However, these sophisticated techniques require special equipment
and skilled personnel. A relatively easier approach is to modify the cement slurry to minimize the ECD.
More often, pore pressure restrictions do not allow density changes. This leaves the possibility of
modifying only the rheological behavior of the slurry.
This work is a demonstrative numerical experiment to highlight how rheology modifications can
provide low circulation pressures with good displacements, thus aiding in effective cement placement in
narrow pressure window scenarios. Details of what rheology modification means in this context, the
example well scenario used, and the subsequent numerical investigations performed are discussed in the
next section. This will be followed with a discussion of the results from the investigations.
This rheological modification approach can aid in effective placement of cement; however, it does not
eliminate the need for the previously mentioned sophisticated placement techniques, especially when the
pressure window is narrow. Rather, if used in conjunction, it is expected to result in more effective cement
placement. This paper only focuses on improving cement placement through modifying rheological
properties of cement slurry. The effect of rheology modification on other slurry properties, such as fluid
loss control, thickening time, gas tight behavior, etc., was not investigated.
Procedure

This section describes the rheology modification process, the example well used for the analysis, and
the nature of investigations that were conducted on the example well using the conventional and modified
cement systems.
Rheological Modification Process
Rheological modification can be achieved by using a special additive such as clay that provides
thixotropic behavior (Barnes 1997). This modification results in an almost invariant shear stress profile
under varying shear rates. For this reason, the flow is predominantly plug-like, providing relatively better
hole cleaning, even at low flow rates.
Fig. 1 shows a schematic of the velocity profile for unmodified (conventional) and modified slurry
systems. For the example case analyzed in this work, the density of the conventional and modified systems
is maintained constant.

Figure 1—Schematic of velocity profile for conventional (left) and modified (right) slurry systems.

Example Well Details

The analysis was performed on an example well having an extended horizontal section. Fig. 2 shows
the schematic of the wellbore geometry. An example well with a horizontal section was chosen because
IADC/SPE-180523-MS 3

the friction pressures during placement are more crucial in the horizontal section, resulting from invariant
hydrostatic pressure and relatively constant pore pressures and fracture pressures.

Figure 2—Wellbore schematic of the example well.

This onshore well has a total depth of 19,485 ft with a horizontal section of approximately 11,000 ft
in an 8 3/4-in. hole with a 5 1/2-in. production casing. The designed top of cement (TOC) for the present
case was 7,452 ft. Surface temperature was 80°F, whereas the bottomhole circulation temperature was
approximately 190°F. The base pump schedule for various fluids used in the simulation was as follows:
Drilling mud, spacer, and cement were placed at 4 bbl/min, and the displacement fluid was pumped at 6
bbl/min.
Standoff varied from approximately 50 to 85% in the horizontal section. The fracture pressure at the
critical location [well total depth (TD)] was 7,828.6 psi. The pore pressure gradient varied from
approximately 14.63 to 14.9 lbm/gal in the horizontal section. For analysis, two types of cement systems
were considered: conventional and modified slurry.
Analysis Details
The focus of this work is to demonstrate the effect of rheology modification on downhole pressures and
displacement characteristics. A two-dimensional (2D) hydraulic analysis was performed to estimate the
friction pressures using the pump schedule described previously. A comparison was made between the
pressure profiles of conventional and modified cement systems. For the same case, a three-dimensional
(3D) displacement analysis (Savery et al. 2008) was also performed. This allowed a comparison of the
displacement characteristics for both systems.
Sometimes, pumping rates need to be changed in real time to adjust for friction pressures. To
investigate the role of pump rate on friction pressures, a modified case using a rate of 7 bbl/min was
analyzed for both cement systems. An iterative analysis was performed on the pump rate of the modified
cement system to obtain a similar displacement profile as that of the conventional cement system. This
showed the relative decrement in friction pressures for same displacement characteristics.
In the case of eccentric casing, cement slurry flows preferably through the wider side of the annulus.
This is because the narrow side of the annulus experiences higher shear rates, which result in higher shear
4 IADC/SPE-180523-MS

stress. As shear stress becomes more independent of shear rate, this preference is expected to decrease.
Hence, the modified cement system was expected to provide better hole cleaning than a conventional
system in the narrow side. This behavior was not analyzed in the current scope but is worth investigating.
Results and Discussion
This section discusses the results from rheology studies, 2D hydraulic analysis, and 3D displacement
analysis for conventional and modified cement systems.
Rheological Behavior
A Class G cement system of 15.7 lbm/gal was used in the designs. A special thixotropic additive was used
to achieve rheological modification. Slurry formulation of conventional and modified cement system that
provides thixotropic behavior is provided in Table 1. Based on our learnings, the slurry modification
involves two principal steps.

Table 1—Slurry formulation of conventional and modified cement systems.

Components Conventional Slurry Modified Slurry

Cement 100% BWOC* 100% BWOC

Fluid loss control additive 1 0.3 % BWOC —
Fluid loss control additive 2 — 0.5% BWOC
Viscosifier 0.1 % BWOC —
Silica 35 % BWOC 35% BWOC
Retarder 0.3 gal/sk 0.3 gal/sk
Defoamer 0.02 gal/sk 0.02 gal/sk
Thixotropic additive — 1% BWOW**

*By weight of cement (BWOC)

**By weight of water (BWOW)

● First is to minimize the usage of additives that have significant dispersing effect in the slurry. This
will increase the effectiveness of the thixotropic additive.
● Second is to add the thixotropic additive in such a composition that the rheological hierarchy is
maintained and the shear stress (dial reading) is almost invariant for different shear rates (rev/min).
Revolutions/min vs. dial reading data from a direct yield stress measurement device (Gordon et al.
2007) were then fit to the generalized Herschel-Bulkley (GHB) model to provide the model parameters
shown in Table 2.

Table 2—Rheological model parameters of conventional and

modified cement systems.
Cement System Conventional Modified

␮⬁ at 190°F (cP) 35.6 82.78

␶0 (lbf/100 ft2) 23.14 37.14
m 0.35 1
n 0.35 1

The mathematical form of the GHB model is shown in Eq. 1. Details of this are available in the work
by Becker et al. (2003) and the references therein. Reference yield stress ␶ref was considered as 1 lbf/ft2
IADC/SPE-180523-MS 5

(1)

Both cement systems were designed to have same yield and water requirements. Note that the modified
cement system has a higher yield point compared to the conventional system. During the modification,
rheological hierarchy was ensured across drilling mud and cement slurry.

Effect of Rheology Modification

This section discusses the changes to downhole pressure profiles and displacement characteristics on
rheology modification. Fig. 3 shows the downhole pressure profiles using conventional and modified
cement systems toward the end of cement placement.

Figure 3—Downhole pressure profiles for last sack of cement using conventional and modified cement systems.

For defining the pressure limits, the pore pressure profile and the fracture pressure at the weakest point
(well TD) are also plotted. These results are from the 2D hydraulic analysis. It can be observed that the
risk of fracture is higher when a conventional cement system is used. For the same pump schedule, the
modified cement system shows a reduced risk of fracture because higher thixotropic behavior results in
lower friction pressures in the modified system. At well TD, there is a 482-psi reduction in downhole
pressure when using the modified cement system. Up to 7,500 ft, there is no variation in pressure because
the theoretical TOC is 7,452 ft, and the mud and spacer rheology and pump schedule are the same in both
cases.
For the same scenario, Fig. 4 shows the displacement characteristics from 3D displacement analysis
toward the end of cement placement.
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Figure 4 —Displacement efficiency at end of job using conventional and modified cement systems.

Displacement efficiency is a measure of volume averaged cement concentration across a cross section.
As shown in the plot, displacement efficiency with modified slurry is higher near the designed TOC
compared to the conventional slurry. The improvement is up to 10 to 15% at this critical location.
Variations in the results are caused by a variation in standoff. Rapid changes in standoff cause larger
oscillations in displacement efficiency. Fig. 5 indicates the standoff profile obtained for the well being
analyzed. Notice the oscillatory nature of standoff between 6,000 ft and approximately 8,500 ft.

Figure 5—Standoff profile.

IADC/SPE-180523-MS 7

Effect of Pump Rate

Fig. 6 shows frictional pressure variations across the depth of the wellbore for two different pump rates.
The actual pump rate during displacement is 6 bbl/min. This is increased to 7 bbl/min. The increment in
frictional pressure at well TD resulting from the increased pump rate is 148 psi when using the modified
system. This increment in the conventional system is higher, at 251 psi. This shows that the modified
system is a safer option than the conventional system when operational conditions demand increases in
pump rates.

Figure 6 —Plot showing the effect of pump rate on frictional pressures for last sack of cement.

Fig. 7 shows a comparison between the conventional and modified systems in the form of a reduction
in frictional pressure gradient when using the modified system rather than the conventional system.

Figure 7—Reduction in frictional pressure gradient as a function of well depth for last sack of cement.
8 IADC/SPE-180523-MS

At well TD, the reduction in the frictional pressure gradient is approximately 1.0 lbm/gal (~40%
reduction in frictional pressure), which provides a good safety window.
Effect of Targeting Similar Displacement
In contrast, when using the modified cement system and targeting the same displacement efficiency as that
of the conventional system at 6 bbl/min, the required pump rate is reduced to 3.5 bbl/min. Fig. 8 shows
the resulting displacement efficiency.

Figure 8 —Displacement efficiency at end of job using conventional and modified cement system at different pump rates.

The decrease in pump rate caused a reduction of approximately 570 psi in downhole pressures at well
TD.
Conclusions
The following conclusions are a result of this work:
● This demonstrative numerical experiment shows that modifying slurry rheology to obtain a shear
rate independent of shear stress profile reduces frictional pressures and help improve displacement
efficiency for the cementing operation.
● A real-time increase in pump rates has less detrimental effect when shear stress is independent of
shear rate.
● Rheology modification is a relatively simple approach that can be used in conjunction with
sophisticated placement techniques for effective cementing operations in narrow margin or
low-ECD scenarios.

References
Barnes, H.A. 1997. Thixotropy – a review. Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics 70 (1–2): 1–33.
Becker, T.E., Morgan, R.G., Chin, W.C. et al 2003. Improved Rheology Model and Hydraulics Analysis for Tomorrow’s
Wellbore Fluid Applications. Presented at the SPE Production and Operations Symposium, Oklahoma City, Okla-
homa, USA, 23–26 March. SPE-82415-MS. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/82415-MS.
IADC/SPE-180523-MS 9

Gordon, C.L., Tonmukayakul, P., and Morgan, R.L. 2007. A New Device Designed for Direct Yield Stress Measurements
of Cement Spacer. Presented at the Petroleum Society’s 8th Canadian International Petroleum Conference, Calgary,
Alberta, Canada, 12–14 June. PETSOC-2007-057. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/2007-057.
Savery, M., Chin, W., and Yerubandi, K.B. 2008. Modeling Cement Placement Using a New 3-D Flow Simulator.
Presented at the AADE Fluids Conference and Exhibition, Houston, Texas, USA, 8 –9 April. AADE 08-DF-HO-08.