Effect of Synthesized AMPS-g-Clay/CuO NanoComposite on WBDFS for Challenging Formations

Abstract

Abstract An attempt has been made in this work to formulate a novel water based mud system with acrylamido-methyl-propane sulfonate polymer (AMPS) grafted clay/CuO nanocomposite for drilling the high temperature troublesome shale formations. Literature survey found several water mud applications of AMPS polymers in the high temperature and high salinity environment as they are highly water-soluble anionic additives. On the other hand, investigators have reported very encouraging results on rheology and fluid loss control, shale impact, well bore stability and strengthening, cuttings lifting capacity and suspension and impact on thermal properties with CuO nano particle. The improvement in rheological and fluid loss control can be attributed to the fact that pore size studies on shales have suggested nano pore size of 2-50 nm. Conventional shale stabilizers and polymers contained in a water based mud cannot plug nanopores of shale. Therefore, water invades into the wellbore, and results in high mud filtrate volume and clay swelling. Given above, AMPS grafted clay/CuO nanocomposite is expected to improve on the CuO nano particle (NP) performance and provide an excellent solution to plug nano pore size of the shale. Hence, in this paper we tried to develop a synthesized additive which assists the drilling mud to provide better bore hole stability and well integrity while drilling the formations.