OTC-28025-MS

New Fiber Technology to Improve Mud Removal

B. Engelke, D. Petersen, F. Moretti, L. A. Halla, R. Becker, L. Pagani, R. A. Revilla, and A. Martinez, Schlumberger

Copyright 2017, Offshore Technology Conference

This paper was prepared for presentation at the Offshore Technology Conference Brasil held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 24–26 October 2017.

This paper was selected for presentation by an OTC program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of
the paper have not been reviewed by the Offshore Technology Conference and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any
position of the Offshore Technology Conference, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written
consent of the Offshore Technology Conference is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may
not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of OTC copyright.

Abstract
As drilling muds evolve to satisfy well requirements, cementing preflush technologies need to change
to ensure proper mud removal during cementing jobs. A new component—engineering-designed fiber—
was added to a preflush fluid and tested in the laboratory, with promising results. The system was then
implemented in Latin America.
Obtaining proper mud removal is very important for achieving zonal isolation at cementing jobs. The
new technology consists of the addition of an engineering-designed fiber to cementing preflush fluids to
significantly improve the removal of nonaqueous fluids from the well during cementing operations. The
fibers are compatible with both cement slurries and mud. They work by removing the mud from the casing
or formation through two mechanisms: by mechanical cleaning and by attracting the nonaqueous compound
of the mud toward itself by hydrophobic-hydrophobic interaction. Two different methodologies were used
to evaluate the fiber's ability to enhance the chemical wash and spacer capabilities to clean and demulsificate
the nonaqueous mud fluids.
The laboratory tests were performed with cementing preflush fluids with and without the fibers. Results
indicated that the preflushes with the fibers were able to clean and demulsificate the drilling mud much
more efficiently than preflush without the fibers. Indeed, it was possible to optimize the amount of the
preflush surfactants and still obtain excellent results. Some successful cases of field implementation of this
technology corroborated the laboratory findings. In both cementing jobs, results indicated very efficient
mud removal, and, consequently, zonal isolation and well integrity were achieved.
The fibers were successfully pumped in a field in Latin America. This innovative technology is able to
enhance cement bonding in both casing and formation and reduces potential remedial job costs in a wide
range of challenging environments.

Introduction
When drilling operations are completed during a well construction, it is time to prepare the wellbore to
replace the drilling fluids (mud) by the cement slurry, providing casing support and complete and durable
zonal isolation during the life of the producing oil and gas wells.
To prepare the wellbore for the cementing job, mud removal plays an important role in the well
productivity. As discussed by Nelson and Guillot (2006), incomplete mud displacement can leave mud
2 OTC-28025-MS

channels in the wells across the zones of interest, thus compromising zonal isolation. Several precautions
must be considered to prevent economic consequences that have a negative effect on well productivity and
can lead to the loss of the well.
Direct contact between nonaqueous drilling muds and cement slurries must be avoided due to
incompatibilities between both fluids. A spacer fluid is added between the fluids to prevent unpredictable
buildup of a viscous sludge at the mud/cement interface, unpredictable thickening time and set properties of
the cement slurry, and wellhead pressure buildup. When nonaqueous compounds are added to some drilling
muds to accomplish the well formation requirement, surfactants must be added to the spacer composition and
to preflushes to improve the wellbore cleanup and leave the walls water-wet, thus providing good bonding
of the cement-to-pipe and cement-to-formation. Moreover, incomplete mud displacement can leave mud
layers or channels on the wellbore walls, leading to interzonal communication, exposure of the casing to
corrosive fluids, and poor cement seal durability.
The spacers available to improve mud removal of nonaqueous fluids (NAF) are basically composed of
water, a surfactant to water wet the wellbore wall, and a gelling agent to viscosify and provide a means
to sustain the weighting agent, which is necessary to accomplish with job design requirement and density
hierarchy (Nelson and Guillot 2006). Fibers are state of art technologies added to the spacer fluids to increase
their efficiency in wellbore cleaning up and proper mud removal.
Recently, extensive laboratory tests and field trials have been performed to ensure not only the fiber
efficiency in improving mud removal but also the operational reliability while pumping the fiber downhole
(Olutimehin et al. 2016). Nowadays, the use of fibers in spacers is a known solution for mud removal, and
their introduction in the Latin America countries confirms their success.

Fiber Technology
As mentioned earlier, cement spacer has the main objective of maintaining drilling fluid and cement slurry
separate as these fluids are incompatible. In addition, the spacer will aid in removing the mud layer on
the casing and formation walls. In the case of NAF, the cement spacer will have an additional objective,
which is inverting the wall's wettability, from oil wet to water wet. This last step is required because the
oil-wet surface will not allow the cement to create a good bond and, depending on the width of the oil film,
it could leave a path for migration. Figure 1 shows a representation of the mud removal mechanism using
cement spacers.

Figure 1—Cement spacer mechanisms for mud removal.

Over many years, service companies worked on developing new chemistry for cement spacer used in
wells with NAF. Most of the time, the effort was focused on new surfactants and solvents capable of acting
efficiently on the mud removal mechanisms illustrated above.
OTC-28025-MS 3

However, it was not always possible to find a feasible product that could accomplish all objectives. For
this reason, the research team started studying other factors to help in cleaning the well properly and started
to consider fibers.
By adding fibers to the cement spacer, the developers noted a superior removal of the mud layer left on
the wall, even when used on NAFs that presented high difficulty of removal. This superior performance is
a result of the scrubbing effect the fibers have on the mud layer sitting on the casing and formation walls.
On top of the scrubbing, the fibers should demonstrate the capability of carrying out of the well the residual
mud removed from the walls to prevent it from redepositing in other parts of casing and formation.
With the discovery of suitable fibers, the fibered cement spacer presented an enhanced mud removal
mechanism with two additional effects, scrubbing and adsorption. An illustration of the new mud removal
mechanism can be seen in Figure 2.

Figure 2—Mud removal mechanism of fibered spacer.

Laboratory Evaluation
The process of implementing engineering-designed fiber in cementing operations starts with the laboratory
tests to evaluate their capability in Latin America scenarios.
First, it is important to highlight the ease of adding these fibers to and dispersing them in water, the base
fluid of any preflush. This can be observed in the two pairs of pictures in Figure 3. On the left side of each
pair, a beaker and a graduated cylinder are filled with just water; the right side shows the same recipients
after the fibers were added.

Figure 3—Dispersion of the engineering-designed fibers in water.

Then, more specific laboratory tests are required to confirm how the fibers improve mud removal. Two
methodologies are applied to evaluate the preplush fluid capabilities of cleaning and demulsificating the
drilling fluids:
4 OTC-28025-MS

• A rotor tests (RT) evaluates the cleaning efficiency of surfactant/solvent added into the preflush
in cleaning a sandblasted, closed rotor.
• The spacer surfactant screening test (SSST) is used to gauge emulsion inversion. The test evaluates
NAF demulsification by the spacer based on direct impedance measurement.
More details of these two testing methodologies are discussed by Taoutaou et al (2015). The SSST testing
procedure is also detailed in API RP 10B-2 (2013).
The same testing procedures are used to evaluate the fiber's ability to enhance the chemical wash and
spacer performance by scrubbing and adsorbing the drilling fluids. Several tests were performed in the
laboratory with one type of water-based mud (WBM) and two types of NAF. The objective was to compare
the results obtained with the same preflush fluid with and without the fibers.
In the RT, the efficiency means the amount of mud removed by the preflush fluid. The higher the amount
of mud removed, the better. Because the test only evaluates the impact of surfactants, rotor tests were
performed with a spacer-based fluid (SBF), which is the spacer without the viscosifier and weighting agents
to prevent any mechanical erosion in the rotor due to viscosity or solids. SBF with different formulations
were tested in the RT. Measurements were performed after 1 minute of test and after 10 minutes.
In the SSST, the result is based on the amount of preflush required to demulsificate the NAF. For this
case, the lower the amount of preflush needed, the better. For the SSST test, the spacer with the complete
formulation can be tested.
Table 1 summarizes the laboratory results. In the tests in which the fibers were added to the SBF, less
time was required to clean the rotor. Most cases achieved 100% of efficiency in 1 minute. Figure 4 shows
the pictures of the rotor from tests 9 (containing fiber) and 10 (without fiber). In these tests, an NAF that was
harder to clean was tested, and it can be clearly observed how the efficiency has improved when the fibers
were added. This efficiency increase observed in the RT is in accordance with the scrubbing capability of
fibers. In addition to the mechanical cleaning improvement, the fiber also proved to be capable of reducing
the volume of spacer required to invert the emulsion as observed in tests 11 and 12 at the SSST. Figure
5 shows the same results of the RT from a different perspective, reinforcing the result obtained in SSST,
where less spacer is required to remove the mud.

Table 1—Laboratory results.

OTC-28025-MS 5

Figure 4—Tests 9 and 10 shows the improvement in mud removal by adding the fibers.

These results confirm the improvement of mud removal efficiency by adding the engineering-designed
fibers to the preflush fluids, speeding up the cleaning process for both WBM and NAF samples. In addition,
the technology allows less spacer fluid to be pumped ahead of cementing fluids. As consequence, it enhances
the cement-casing and cement-formation bonds, thus improving zonal isolation.

Figure 5—Efficiency improvement in mud removal when the fibers were added to SBF.

Additionally, another important laboratory test to evaluate the operational use of the fibers is the plugging
test. The spacer treated with this fiber was tested to pass through different slots (1 to 5 mm width) simulating
a physical restriction downhole. The slot was placed inside the fluid loss cell in order to determine the
resistance to pass while applying pressure. The results are in Table 2. Figure 6 shows the slot configuration
for testing the plugging effect. These results show that none of the slots were plugged, even the one with
the smallest restriction (1 milimeter), and the increase in pressure to force the flow through the restriction
is minimum.

Table 2—Results of plugging test with different slots

6 OTC-28025-MS

Figure 6—Slot configuration for plugging effect

Field Implementation
This chapter presents five field cases in four different countries in Latin America where the fibers were
pumped with the spacer obtaining improved mud removal. When available, the cement bond logs (CBL) and
variable density logs (VDL) are presented to confirm the successful application of the fibers. CBL measures
the amplitude of sound pulses and is maximum in unsupported casing. When the casing is bonded to hard
cement, casing vibrations are attenuated and the amplitude of the pulses are low, usually less than 15 mV.
VDL is a presentation of the acoustic waveform of a sonic measurement in which the amplitude is presented
in gray scale. It is a qualitative measure of the wave amplitude in the casing and formation arrivals. The
more variation of black and white that appears (higher amplitude), the cement bond with casing/formation
is less satisfactory. Lower amplitudes (gray shades) indicate that there is good bonding with both casing
and formation.

Case 1: Country A
The first case shows significant improvement of mud removal after the fibers were added. An operator has
been using treated NAF for the last 8 months to take advantage of a large remaining stock from a campaign
that has ended. The difficulty in removing mud has had a negative impact in the CBL/VDL logs performed.
The problem of mud removal has been identified in the increasingly poor results seen in the RTs
performed. A whole package of surfactants in combination with mutual solvent has been tested to search
for the right concentration and type. Results worsened with time, reaching values as low as 10% of mud
removal when it used to be higher than 90%.
On the other hand, in wells where due to pore pressure it is impossible to use a chemical washer,
surfactants must be added to spacer; but the concentration is limited by the stability of the resulting mixture.
It is often the case, at high concentrations of such additives, that there is a tendency for the surfactant to
separate from the spacer and migrate towards surface. This has an impact in job planning because spacer
cannot be stored in a tank without agitation before a cement job takes place. In addition, this separation
becomes a risk as the surfactant phase, if unnoticed, has the potential to unbalance the well since its density
is lower than water.
The addition of fibers was critical to boosting the effectiveness of the spacer system in its purpose of
leaving a suitable surface for cement slurry to bond to, bringing results in RTs to values equal or higher to
90% of mud removal, in some cases, in less than 5 minutes.
Fibers are easily added to the spacer in the batch mixer after the mixture has been tested in the laboratory.
Fibers have also shown the ability to keep the surfactant package within the matrix of the spacer, increasing
its homogeneity.
CBL/VDL results show great improvement in the wells in which the fibers were used, and it has been
noticed by the operator, as seen in Figure 7 and Figure 8.
OTC-28025-MS 7

Figure 7—Example of well in which CBL and VDL were improved after addition of fibers. With fibers Without fibers

Figure 8—A second example of a well in country A in which CBL and VDL were improved after addition of fibers.

Case 2: Country B
To improve drilling performance, an operator decided to leave a secondary pay zone in the 9 5/8-in.
intermediate section (openhole 12 1/4 in.). While the casing was being run, it became stuck at 10,784 ft,
384 ft above total depth (TD) with circulation. After many attempts to release the casing, the client decided
to cement the casing in that condition. Figure 9-a presents the well diagram.
In this scenario, it is difficult to get good mud removal and cement bonding due to long circulation hours,
low annular velocity, unknown well geometry, well deviation (28°), poor centralization (47% standoff, as
shown Figure 9-b and 9-c), and no casing movement.
The use of fiber technology in spacer was chosen to improve mud removal capability. Mud removal tests
demonstrated improvement in the cleaning efficiency with the use of fibers. Other laboratory tests were
run to ensure good fiber dispersion, stability, spacer rheology (friction pressure hierarchy), and spacer-fiber
flowability.
8 OTC-28025-MS

In the field, the fibers were added to the spacer in a batch mixer to ensure homogenous dispersion in
the spacer.
The cementing design included 70 bbl of 12.5-lbm/gal spacer with fiber technology, 238 bbl of 13.8-
lbm/gal lead slurry, and 60 bbl of 16.4-lbm/gal tail slurry. Water and 11-lbm/gal mud were pumped for
displacement. The job execution was according to the job design.
Figure 9-d shows good cement bonding at the reservoir section, achieving good well integrity and zonal
isolation for this pay zone. The ultrasonic image log results show that the fiber technology efficiency for
mud removal was good under these critical well conditions.

Figure 9—Cement job design and results: a, well schematic and fluid sequence; b, original
centralization design; c, stuck casing centralization; d, ultrasonic cement logging at the reservoir.

Case 3: Country C
Two 10 ¾-in. × 9 7/8-in. production casing cementing jobs were executed offshore with the addition of
fibers at the spacer. Details of each operation are discussed below.
Both wells A and B were drilled with 12 ¼-in. bit. After wireline logs were run, the need was identified to
hydraulically isolate the 9 7/8-in. shoe and certain zones (approximately 70 m each) in the wells, including
the oil-water contact in well B. The achievement of a good zonal isolation in these zones was critical for
the continuity of operations and production of the well.
To enhance the chances of achieving the expected results, fibers were added to the spacer to be pumped
ahead of the cement aiming to improve the mud removal and proper zonal isolation. Table 3 summarizes
the data for each well, and Table 4 shows the pumping sequence.

Table 3—Data for wells A and B.

OTC-28025-MS 9

Table 4—Pumping sequence in wells A and B.

The volumes were designed to have the top of cement (TOC) 300 m above the topmost interval to be
isolated. Best practices for centralization were used to achieve a minimum 75% standoff.
The execution of the job was performed without any issues. The preparation of the spacer with fibers at
the rig site went smoothly and did not bring any extra risks to the operations.
After the execution of the job, cementing evaluation logs were run to evaluate the quality of the cementing
job and to evaluate if the objectives were achieved. Figure 10 and Figure 11 show the main zones where
isolation was required in each well. It can be seen that the objectives were successfully achieved.

Figure 10—CBL/VDL of zone of interest in well A.

Figure 11—Cementing evaluation of the target interval in well B.

10 OTC-28025-MS

Case 4: Country D
In a field in country D, an operator produces edible salt through wells built for salt extraction through the
dilution process. The salt produced is for national and international consumers. The wells have the potential
of being part of the first projects for underground storage of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) in a salt cavern in a
joint venture with the operator. Therefore, after the salt surrounding the production casing was washed out
completely, LPG is injected into the cavern for long-term storage.
The requirements to accomplish well integrity are to obtain annular coverage of cement up to the surface
for all stages, prepare salt-saturated slurries for open hole where the salt formation is exposed, and obtain
complete zonal isolation during the life of the well.
It was required to have good cement coverage in the openhole section as well as in the annular space
with the previous casing. For reaching isolation, two criteria must be achieved:

• The slurries exposed to formation must not dilute the formation while placing nor while waiting
on cement (WOC).
• There must be annular coverage with a self-healing cement to prevent any gas leak to surface.

Two previous wells (well 1 and well 2) were cemented in the past with same slurries, but the evaluation
indicated that although the cement was covering the casing, the cement adherence to the pipe was not
completely homogenous along the openhole section. Therefore, the improvement in mud removal as shown
in laboratory testing was crucial to proposing and using this mechanical additive.
The cementing job was performed as a stab-in operation for the 16-in. production casing. Centralization
with bowspring centralizers played two important roles: assuring reaching true depth and obtaining enough
standoff for achieving annular coverage with cement.
To prevent salt dilution while WOC, tail and self-healing slurries were salt saturated (37.2% BWOW).
The fiber was slowly added to the spacer, verifying proper dispersion in the batch mixer based on laboratory
recipe. Table 5 summarizes the cementing job.

Table 5—Schedule of cementing job.

The job achieved the objectives of the operator, and the use of the fiber technology helped to close
the gap in the evaluation process. Cement was returned to the surface; no losses occurred while placing
cementing fluids in the annulus and during displacement. The CBL-VDL-ultrasonic log was run showing
good cement bonding in the openhole section and presence of good cement along the previous casing. Below
1090 m, CBL amplitude shows good bonding, with low values of approximately 8 to 15 mV. The VDL
shows possible formation arrivals, which indicate adherence of cement to the pipe, with slight interference,
possibly due to pipe wall thickness and diameter.
Well 1 and well 2 CBL logs show nonconstant amplitude along the openhole section. In contrast, the
improvement in the well 3 CBL is notable, as observed in Figure 12. The log results clearly showed the
improvement achieved, which was a result of the changes in cementing design, laboratory testing, field
execution, and post-job analysis.
OTC-28025-MS 11

Figure 12—CBL comparison, fibers applied in well 3.

Conclusion
Laboratory study showed the superior cleaning mechanism of the cement spacer with fibers in comparison
with cement spacer without fibers. The scrubbing and adsorption effects of the fibers added into the mud
removal mechanism makes a very positive difference.
The field applications of the fibered spacer in Latin America showed equivalent results. By comparing
similar jobs performed first with regular cement spacer with later jobs performed with fibered spacer, the
latest ones showed improvement on the cement bond logs, confirming the expected results.
The fibers do not cause any adverse effect on cement spacer or cement slurry. That makes the field
deployment of this technology simple and straightforward. Additionally, the fibered spacer can be used in
any openhole section that falls within the fiber's specifications in terms of well temperature and fluid density.

References
API RP 10-B-2 Recommended Practice for Testing Well Cements. 2013. Washington, DC: API.
Nelson, E. and Guillot, D. 2006. Well Cementing, second edition. Sugar Land, Texas: Schlumberger.
Olutimehin, K., Taoutaou, S., Pasteris, M. et al. 2016. Implementation of an Engineered, Fiber-Based Spacer Solution
for Improved Mud Removal -Thailand Case History. Presented at the IADC/SPE Asia Pacific Drilling Conference,
Singapore, 22-24 August. SPE-180624-MS. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/180624-MS
Taoutaou, S., Goh, S. H., Bermea, J. A. V. et al. 2015. Achieving Zonal Isolation by Using New-Generation Mud
Removal Chemistry and Design Methodology to Displace Non-Aqueous Drilling Fluid. Presented at the SPE/
IATMI Asia Pacific Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition, Bali, Indonesia, 20-22 October. SPE-176061-MS. http://
dx.doi.org/10.2118/176061-MS