Nonmodified Silica Nanoparticles

Decrease Water Invasion Into Atoka Shale

S hales account for 75% of the all

footage drilled and are responsible
for 90% of wellbore-stability problems.
TABLE 1—INVENTORY OF SELECTED UNMODIFIED
SILICA NANOPARTICLE DISPERSIONS
3
Number Label NP (wt%) NP size (nm) SG (g/cm ) pH
Maintaining wellbore stability is one
1 G 15.5 5 1.103 10.2
of the more critical aspects of oil and
2 D 39.7 12 1.299 9.6
gas drilling. The main cause of shale
3 A 30.2 7 1.22 10
instability for both soft and hard shales
4 E 50 22 1.242 9
is water absorption and subsequent 5 B 30.4 10–15 1.2 10
swelling and sloughing of the wellbore. 6 C 30.7 7–9 1.2 10
Laboratory data shows the positive 7 F 40.8 10–20 1.307 10.1
effect of adding commercially available,
inexpensive, nonmodified silica
nanoparticles (particle size varies from of minutes. It was stored in oil, and, dur- with the lower face of the shale. The sim-
5 to 22 nm) to water-based drilling ing preparations for testing, it was stored ulated pore fluid was a 4 wt% solution of
muds and their effect on water invasion in a controlled-humidity desiccator. Use sea salt that had a 0.98 water activity. A
into shale. of shales that have dried out or that are test fluid was flowed across the top of a
reconstituted is not acceptable for the shale sample (Fig. 2) at a constant pres-
tests that were run in this study. sure (approximately 250 psi), and the
Experimental Methods Muds Used. Three types of water- buildup of fluid pressure in a small sealed
Materials Used. Nanoparticles. A based muds were used in this study: a chamber located at the bottom of the
total of 22 different types of nanoparti- freshwater mud (FWM), a thick bentonite shale was recorded.
cles were obtained from four manufac- mud, and a low-solids mud (LSM). It was
turers. Of these samples, only seven— found that, in all tests, the presence of Experimental Procedures. Thermal-
NP-G, NP-D, NP-A, NP-E, NP-B, NP-C, 10  wt% concentration of nanoparticles Stability Test. The thermal-stability test
and NP-F—were nonmodified, nonacid- reduced the permeability of the shale. consisted of adding 10 wt% nanoparti-
ic, and commercially available (Table 1). cles to a water-based mud (FWM) then
Shale Properties. Shale is a sedi- Test Equipment for Measuring Shale heating it to 176°F for 16 hours. The mud/
mentary rock that mineralogically con- Permeability. A pressure penetration nanoparticle mixtures that had unac-
sists of clays, quartz, and other silicate (PP) test was used to measure shale per- ceptable properties were rejected, and
and carbonate minerals. Because of meability. The test consisted of three the remaining mud/nanoparticle mix-
their high clay content, shales tend to steps. Seawater was first flowed through tures were then subjected to the PP test.
absorb water from a water-based mud, the shale sample, followed by a base PP Tests. The three-step testing pro-
which results in swelling and sloughing mud, and then by a base mud that con- cedure was used because it was found that
of the wellbore. tained 10 wt% nanoparticles. the shale test samples did not have the
In this study, a hard and preserved The experimental setup (Fig. 1) con- same original permeability. It was decid-
Atoka shale was used. Great care was sisted of several devices used to achieve ed to first flow seawater through the shale
taken to preserve the shale at its native a continuous flow of the test fluid across sample until equilibrium was reached
water activity. The shale was not exposed the top face of the shale sample while the to produce saturated shale samples that
to air for any period of time over a couple simulated pore fluid was kept in contact have the same starting conditions.
For the second step, a PP test was
run using the base mud to obtain a base-
This article, written by Editorial Manager Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper
mud permeability for that sample. Final-
SPE 146979, “Decreasing Water Invasion Into Atoka Shale Using Nonmodified Silica
ly, a PP test was run using the base mud
Nanoparticles,” by J. Cai, SPE, China University of Geosciences; M.E. Chenevert, SPE, that contained 10 wt% nanoparticles.
and M.M. Sharma, SPE, The University of Texas at Austin; and Jim Friedheim, SPE, The percent permeability reduction was
M-I Swaco, prepared for the 2011 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, obtained by dividing the permeability
Denver, 30 October–2 November. The complete paper was published in the March difference achieved during Step 3 by that
2012 issue of SPE Drilling & Completion, Pages 103–112. of Step 2 (times 100).

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.jptonline.org.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2013 141

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NPT
O-ring
Top Cap / -in.
1 16
1.25 in. holes
Recess For Porous Plate
Bolt
Shale Sample
Recess for Shale Sample
Groove for Porous Plate, 0.056 in.
Base
1.25 in.
/ -in. Tubing
1 16
/ -in. Tubing
1 8
1.75 in.
2.5 in.
3.86 in.
0.68 in.
Fig. 1—Schematic of the test cell.
For the tests performed with the
LSM, a similar procedure was followed.
Results and Discussion
Thermal-Stability Tests on FWM Con-
taining Nanoparticles. The seven non-
modified and commercial nanoparticle
dispersions (as shown in Table 1) were
mixed with FWM to obtain a 10 wt%
mixture. They were then heated at 80°C
(176°F) for 24 hours then aged at room
temperature for another 24 hours.
All muds were acceptable except for
NP-G. This mud had very poor rheology
and unlimited filtration. For this reason,
PP tests were not performed using NP-G.
Rheology of Nanoparticle-Containing
Muds. The presence of nanoparticles
resulted in higher plastic viscosity (PV)
and lower yield point (YP) and Ameri-
can Petroleum Institute (API) filtration.
The addition of nanoparticles results in
a higher solids content, and this results
in a higher PV. On the other hand, the
addition of extra water in the nanopar-
ticle dispersion diluted the mud and de-
creased the YP.
142
NT146979.indd 142
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O-ring
Bolt
0.25 in.
1 in.
Nut
0.68 in.
Filtration of Nanoparticle-Containing
Muds. Nano-sized silica could plug the
throats of the filter paper and formed a
thin and hard mudcake, which led to a
decline in the API filtration.
Changes in Shale Permeability With
the Addition of Nanoparticles. All six
nonmodified-nanoparticle dispersions
were able to reduce the permeability of
Atoka shales significantly when com-
pared with the two mud types studied.
Effect of Mud Composition on Shale
Permeability. Effect of Nanoparticle
Size. The average pore-throat sizes of a
variety of shales range from 10 to 30 nm.
Fig. 3 shows the plot of nanoparticle
size vs. permeability-reduction percent
(Δk). Nanoparticles with sizes varying
from 7 to 15 nm had better plugging per-
formance than those with sizes greater
than 20 nm. It was speculated that only
nanoparticles whose particle sizes fall
in this range could enter and plug the
pore throats of shales and, therefore,
minimize fluid invasion into shales. It
also must be pointed out that 7- to 15-nm
nanoparticles work well for Atoka shale,
while other sizes may be needed for
other shale types.
Effect of Nanoparticle Concentra-
tion in Pure Nanoparticle Dispersions.
Shale-permeability tests were performed
at nanoparticle concentration levels of
30.2, 10, and 5% with NP-A and NP-B for
comparative purposes.
The pure nanoparticle dispersions
with a concentration greater than or
equal to 10 wt% were more effective at
shale-pore plugging and reducing fluid
invasion into shale samples.
Effect of Nanoparticle Concentra-
tion in Muds. For a drilling mud, filtra-
tion and rheology properties need to be
suitable to fulfill drilling requirements.
The PP tests run with a 5 wt% nano-
particle dispersion produced results that
were significantly inferior to those of tests
run with a 10 wt% nanoparticle dispersion.
From this comparative study, 10 wt% is the
preferred concentration to be used in muds
for acceptable plugging of the Atoka shale.
Potential for Field Application. Water-
based inhibitive muds containing non-
modified nanoparticles have been
formulated for the first time. These
nonmodified-nanoparticle-based muds
may hold great promise in the future to
address shale-instability problems.
Also, nonmodified pure nanopar-
ticle dispersions with a concentration
equal to or greater than 10 wt% can be
squeezed into unstable shale formations
to plug pore throats, stop fluid invasion,
and increase wellbore stability. This can
be especially useful for drilling through
a short section of a particularly unstable
shale formation.
Furthermore, it may be possible to
use nonmodified nanoparticles as a com-
ponent in a fracturing fluid to minimize
fluid invasion into shale formations and
enhance return permeability as a whole.
Conclusions
◗◗It is possible to reduce the
invasion of water-based fluids
into shales significantly by use of
nonmodified nanoparticles.
◗◗Of the six selected nanoparticle
dispersions, NP-A, NP-B, NP-C,
NP-D, and NP-F performed very
well when tested with Atoka
shale. The permeability reduction
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1/18/13 1:27 PM
 Backpressure
Regulator

Cylinder Cylinder

Freshwater
Reservoir

Vacuum

Seawater
Fig. 2—Experimental setup of PP test. Reservoir

100
shale was in a range of 45.67
Permeability Reduction, %

to 87.63% by the addition of

90 10 wt% nanoparticles.
80 ◗◗Nanoparticles varying in
size from 7 to 15 nm and at a
70 concentration of 10 wt% are
60 shown to be effective at reducing
y = −2.0782x+102.06 shale permeability, thereby
50 reducing the interaction between
40 the shale and a water-based fluid.
5 10 15 20 25
NP size, nm On the basis of the results obtained,
Bentonite mud LSM Linear (LSM) it is now possible to envision a water-
based drilling fluid containing nanopar-
Fig. 3—Effect of nanoparticle size on permeability-reduction percent (Δk, %). ticles that will have a much smaller inter-
action with the shale. This lower water
for a preserved Atoka shale was preserved Atoka shale was in invasion will lead to fewer wellbore-­
in a range of 73.17 to 99.13% a range of 57.72 to 99.33% instability problems and may lead to the
by the addition of 10 wt% by the addition of 10 wt% use of water-based fluids that are suitable
nanoparticles. nanoparticles. for drilling long sections of horizontal lat-
◗◗For the bentonite muds, the ◗◗For the LSMs, the permeability erals. Such water-based drilling-fluid for-
permeability reduction for a reduction for a preserved Atoka mulations are now being developed. JPT

144 JPT • FEBRUARY 2013

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