Performance Evaluation of Iron(III)Oxide Nanoparticles for Fluid Loss Control in Water and Oil Based Mud

Abstract

The effectiveness of Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles for high temperature/high pressure (HT/HP) well production using water and oil based drilling mud was investigated. To achieve success in drilling HT/HP wells, the mud rheological properties must be adequate to combat troublesome zones. For these to be achieved, it is necessary that muds with proper additives be used. In this work, 20nm Fe₂O₃ (nanoparticle) of 35g/bbl, 70g/bbl, 105g/bbl and 140g/bbl (mass concentrations) were added to a formulated oil based mud for application in high temperature, high pressure drilling operations. The result shows that for oil based muds which is generally used to drill high temperature and high pressure zones, increase in temperature from 80⁰F to 190⁰F, the fluid loss was drastically reduced from 7.2mls to 3.2mls at 100psi for WBM and from 7.2mls to 2.1mls for oil based mud at 500psi. All these were achieved for mass concentrations of 0g/bbl to 140g/bbl. An analytical model was generated to predict fluid loss at any given temperature andmass concentrations for oil based muds after fitting 110 data points from the experimental result. The model generated can be an economic tool for predicting fluid loss for a wide range of temperature and pressure conditions and can guide the oil and gas industry on decision making to combat troublesome zones.