1- Influence of tailor-made TiO2/API bentonite nanocomposite on drilling mud performance:

Towards enhanced drilling operations

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169131720304270?via%3Dihub
ADDRESED PROBLEM: SHALE SWELLING& FILTRAION AND LUBRICITY IN HPHT CONDATIONS

ABSTRACT
A novel tailor-made TiO2 nanoparticles-bentonite (TNBT) nanocomposite-enhanced
drilling mud was tested. The drilling mud showed excellent performance; (i) lubricity was
enhanced, (ii) thin and well-intact mud cakes were created, (iii) coating was provided on
shale and bentonite plugs, and (iv) clay and shale swelling were mitigated, hence these
features ensured a platform for sustainable oil and gas well drilling. The synthesised
TNBT nanocomposite followed the one-third bridging rule, i.e., these nanoparticles can
bridge nanopore throats in shale pellets and American Petroleum Institute (API) standard
bentonite pellets. The tailor-made TNBT nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray
diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. The coefficient of friction and filtrate loss
of TNBT-enhanced muds were determined with a lubricity tester, and an API filter press,
respectively. Additionally, shale and clay swellings were determined with a linear swell
meter. The coefficient of friction was reduced after 0.8 g of TNBT was added to 350 ml
drilling mud, resulting in a 35% enhancement in mud lubricity. The new mud also
drastically mitigated the swelling in shale and clay when compared to conventional mud.
The swelling inhibition was attributed to an increase in the mud viscosity and improved
nanopore plugging characteristics, which resulted in less water infiltration. Thus, drilling
mud supplemented with the tailor-made TiO2 nanoparticles-bentonite nanocomposite
showed superior characteristics and a good potential for field operations.

Conclusions In this work, the performance of water-based mud enhanced TiO2/ bentonite
nanocomposite (tailor-made) was evaluated to offer an effective solution for drilling into
water suspectible and sensitive formations (like smectite rich shale). Here, (i) lubricity, (ii)
mud cake size thinning/wellbore stabilisation, (iii) shale and clay swelling inhibition
potential, and (iv) clay and shale stabilisation were evaluated. The optimum TNBT
concentration was identified as 0.8 g. Lubricity of the nanocomposite based mud was
significantly enhanced and attributed to TNBT high surface area to volume ratio, which
improved the homogeneity of the drilling mud, while spherical TiO2 nanoparticles may
also produce ball-bearing effects between the casing block (metal) and machine contact
surface (metal). Additionally, the bentonite and polymer (such as PAC and flowzan)
coated the casing block and the lubricity tester's contact metal surface resulting lubricious
media. TNBT composite mud drastically inhibited clay and shale swelling, because (i) the
1/3rd Abram's bridging rule (to ensure efficient bridging of the rock pores) was fulfilled,
and (ii) TiO2 nanoparticles were attracted to the positive edges of shale and clay layers,
and (iii) bentonite significantly expands in water thus to increase the mud's viscosity
therefore it might have mitigated the infiltration of base water into the pellet's pores. The
results of this study suggest that this TNBT nanocompositedrilling mud is effective;
 however still further research is required to examine the optimum TNBT concentrations
for field-scale applications

2- Effect of high temperature ageing on TiO2 nanoparticles enhanced drilling fluids: A

rheological and filtration study
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666260420300190
ADDRESED PROBLEM: filtration

abstract

Design of drilling fluids is critical to the techno-economic success of drilling a petroleum

well bore and the present study is a forward step in that direction. Effect of TiO2
nanoparticles on the thermal stability of drilling fluid properties is evaluated using two
different mud systems based on polyanionic cellulose (PAC) and hydroxyethyl cellulose
(HEC). Drilling fluids were subjected to high temperature rolling conditions at 110 °C and
30 rpm for 16 hours in order to simulate the wellbore environment using a roller oven. Due
to 16 h long hot rolling, the API FL values for DFB (base mud), DFP3 (1.0 w/v% PAC)
and DFH3 (1.0 w/v% HEC) increased by ~56%, ~18% and ~46% respectively; whereas in
presence of 0.5 w/v% nanoparticles respective figures were ~28%, ~16% and ~25%. In
case of DFP3, AV at 25 °C was reduced due to hot rolling by ~34% without nanoparticles
and by only ~15% in presence of nanoparticles. For DFH3, the percentage reduction in AV
at 25 °C due to ageing was ~24% which decreased to ~16% for DFHN (1.0 w/v% HEC
and 0.5 w/v% TiO2). It was found that nanoparticles imparted resistance to thermal
degradation in rheological and filtration characteristics of drilling fluids. Filter cakes were
studied using scanning electron microscopy and showed nanoparticles scattered over the
surface of filter cakes which were filling the micro and nano sized gaps in the porous
structure of mud cake and reducing the filtration rate. This study shows that using TiO2
nanoparticles along with a conventional fluid loss reducer additive not only enhances the
efficacy of that additive but also improves the thermal stability and rheological properties
of mud systems.

Conclusion
This study provides a comprehensive experimental analysis of effect of hot rolling on
rheological and filtration properties of a series of mud formulations containing HEC and
PAC as fluid loss reducers with and without TiO2 nanoparticles. It was found that the
PAC based formulations have lower values for LPLT and HPHT filtration loss compared
to the formulations with same concentration of HEC. While increasing the HEC
concentration beyond 0.5 w/v% further reduced the fluid loss, PAC M. Beg, P. Kumar and
P. Choudhary et al. Upstream Oil and Gas Technology 5 (2020) 100019 achieved very low
values of HPHT and LPLT fluid losses at 0.5 w/v% and increasing the concentration
above this value resulted in less further reduction in FL. Rheological parameters such as
AV, PV, YP and gel strengths were very high for PAC based formulations in comparison
to those for HEC based formulations that may not be desirable for all the cases such as YP
which should not be too high to pump the mud efficiently and very high gel strength will
be problematic in cuttings separation from the mud for the recycling of drilling fluid. Hot
rolling experiments were performed at 110 °C, and resulted in sharp decrease in
rheological parameters of PAC based systems while HEC based fluids had less
degradation in rheological parameters. API fluid loss was more stable for PAC based
systems and this shows that PAC is better choice for FL reduction between these two.
Nanoparticles were effective in these mud systems even at high salinity. Zeta potential and
particle size analyses suggested the attractive interaction between nanoparticles and
xanthan gum molecular network in aqueous medium. The interaction and agglomeration of
nanoparticles with XG resulted in high average particle size and wider distribution curve.
SEM analysis showed that the filter cake surfaces are flatter and less porous for mud
samples containing HEC and PAC as compared to the base mud. Nanoparticles in the form
of small clusters were found to be spread over the surface of mud cake and must be
embedded throughout the filter cake thickness which cannot be seen by SEM. The
presence of embedded nanoparticles in filter cake reduced the effective filtration rate.
Hence, it can be concluded that addition of TiO2 nanoparticles into the mud systems
resulted in improved rheological and filtration characteristics, especially in presence of
high concentration of HEC polymer. The presence of nanoparticles also mitigated the
thermal degradation tendency of polysaccharides containing drilling fluids.
 3. Experimental evaluation of nanomaterials to improve drilling fluid properties of water-based
muds HP/HT applications

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0920410520301017

ADDRESED PROBLEM: improving rheological properties & filtration characterizations

ABSTRACT
These days, significant investigations are carried out on the preparation of high qualified
aqueous-based drilling fluid-structure to create the best option compared with oil-base
drilling fluid at high-pressure and hightemperature situations utilizing an optimum cost
approach. Nanomaterials may have the desirable possibility of using their favored
utilization documented in many publications. Although high cost, due to more
concentration and side undesirable effects on one or some mud properties, this situation
restricts using these materials in various industries. In this experimental research, an effort
was made to enhance the application of water-based drilling fluids by using three kinds of
nanomaterials, called zirconium oxide, multi-walled carbon nanotubes and titanium
dioxide nanohybrids, and functionalized multi-wall carbon nanotubes. Accomplishing
some rheological, filtration characteristics and conductivity experiments on the
experimental samples with nanomaterials mentioned manifested that the hybrids and
zirconium oxide efficiently improve the drilling fluid rheological parameters including
plastic viscosity, yield point and gel strength of the mud with a slow influence on the mud
filtrate volume. However, by the multi-walled carbon nanotubes, the filtration properties
are remarkably decreased with no undesirable side effects on rheological characteristics,
particularly at the 0.5 wt% concentration. Generally, it could be concluded that using the
nanomaterials at concentrations up to 0.5 wt% into the water-based mud has the possibility
of enhancing rheological and filtration characteristics.

Conclusions
In this research, several Nanomaterials were mixed in bentonite mud to improve drilling
fluid characteristics by carrying out a collected of rheological, filtration loss and
conductivity experiments. The experimental results accomplished illustrated that using
MWNT-TiO2 hybrids and ZrO2 could increase the yield point, plastic viscosity and the
gel strength of the drilling muds, although this increasing trend may not favorable due to
side undesirable effects on mud filtrate volume. Plastic viscosity, yield point and gel
strength of the WBDF were strongly improved by using FMWCNTs from 0.01 to 0.5 wt%
concentration which is desirable. The filtrate loss tests illustrated that the FMWCNTs
makes mud filtrate volume decreases by obtaining firm and taught structure at LPLT and
HPHT situations. The mud cake thickness is considerably reduced by using FMWCNTs
into mud bentonite systems. The enhancement conduction of experimental samples is
another favorite property that enhances the electrical conduction and drilling operation
performance.
Application of amorphous silica nanoparticles in improving the rheological properties, filtration
and shale stability of glycol-based drilling fluids

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0735193320301524

ABSTRACT
The drilling process in shale formations and well stability in the presence of shale are
among the most challenging issues in the drilling industry. Routinely, oil-based drilling
fluids are used for drilling troublesome shale formations. However, oil-based drilling muds
have a number of significant disadvantages, including very high cost, causing severe
damage to the environment, and interfering with the well-logging process. To address this
issue, a sustainable glycol-based drilling fluid is designed in this study to substitute the
routinely used oil-based drilling fluids. In the first step, amorphous silica nanoparticles
with different particle sizes (12, 22, and 54 nm) are prepared from rice husks. The
prepared nanoparticles are then dispersed in water and added to the glycolbased mud as a
liquid-based additive. Finally, the effect of silica nanoparticles on rheological properties,
filtration, and shale stability of glycol drilling fluid is studied. The results show that the
use of silica nanoparticles improves the rheological properties of glycol drilling fluid. This
improvement is a function of the amount and size of nanoparticles. Adding silica
nanoparticles also decreases fluid loss and increases the thermal stability of the drilling
fluid. Moreover, silica nanoparticles can effectively plug nanoscale pores of Gurpi shale
resulting in increasing the shale cutting recovery and decreasing the penetration rate of
glycol drilling fluid into the Gurpi shale samples.

Conclusion
In this study, amorphous silica nanoparticles with different sizes (12, 22, and 54 nm) were
synthesized. The nanoparticles were then dispersed in water using the well-known two-
step methods to produce silica nanofluids. The prepared nanofluids were then added to
drilling mud to improve the rheological properties, filtration, and shale stability of the
glycol drilling fluid. The results of the experiments performed in this work are as
followed: • Adding nanoparticles to glycol drilling fluid enhances the rheological
properties of drilling fluid. This enhancement is directly related to the size and
concentration of nanoparticles.
• The fluid loss of nano-based drilling fluid before and after hot rolling is much lower
than that of the base glycol drilling fluid.
• Adding nanoparticles to drilling fluids effectively improves their thermal stability.
• Adding silica nanoparticles to glycol-based drilling fluid could effectively improve the
shale stability of this type of drilling fluids.
• The shale stability of nano-based drilling fluids depends on the size and concentration of
nanoparticles.
• When the size and concentration of nanoparticles were 22 nm and 10 wt%, respectively,
the shale instability was minimum.
Environmentally benign invert emulsion mud with optimized performance for
shale drilling

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0920410519312094

ADDRESED PROBLEM: transferring cuttings

ABSTRACT
The experience acquired in the field showed that poor cuttings transportation results
in several drilling problems, such as pipe sticking, undue torque and drag, hole–pack
off, or lower than projected drilling performance. In this study, complex water–based
mud (WBM) formulated with polypropylene–nanosilica composite (PP–SiO2 NC)
and partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (PHPA), a drag–reducing agent were used to
examine cuttings transferring efficiencies (CTEs). The examination focused on the
impact of diameters of cuttings (between 0.50 and 4.00 mm), hole angles (45, 60, 75,
90�), mud velocities (between 0.457 and 1.80 m/s) and different concentrations (0.4,
0.5, 0.8 and 1.2 ppb) of PP–SiO2 NC and PHPA. A field–oriented cuttings transport
flow loop of dimensions (69.85 mm � 26.67 mm, 6.07 m–long annulus) was
constructed to determine the CTEs of the drilling muds. Results showed that smallest
cuttings were easiest to remove when mud velocities of 0.457, 0.630, 0.823 and 0.960
m/s were used, but when the velocity increased to 1.80 m/s, the transport of largest
cuttings became the easiest. Results also confirmed that PP–SiO2 NC muds are more
capable of transferring cuttings than PHPA mud samples with or without pipe
rotation speed due to increased colloidal forces that increase the interaction between
cuttings and PP–SiO₂ NC particles. Rotation of drill pipe and an increase in mud
velocity will effectively increase the drag effects, which will lead to increased CTE.
Hole angle 45� was the most difficult inclination in the cuttings transport process
due to the higher settling tendency of cuttings on the low side of the hole. The
application of complex WBM with PP–SiO2 NC showed promising attributes in a
cuttings transport process.