Effect of Sodium Acetate on High-Temperature Gelation Characteristics of Sodium-Modified Calcium-Based Bentonite Water-Based Drilling Fluids

TL;DR

This study explores how sodium acetate improves the high-temperature performance of drilling fluids used in deep oil and gas exploration.

Contribution

The study introduces sodium acetate as a cost-effective, dual-function treatment agent for enhancing the high-temperature stability of drilling fluids.

Findings

Adding 2 wt.% TRSA maintains high-shear viscosity and improves low-shear viscosity after high-temperature aging.

TRSA increases filtration loss, but this can be mitigated by co-extrusion with sodium carbonate or additional TRSA.

Sodium acetate provides resource reuse and cost reduction while improving gelation and rheological properties.

Abstract

As global oil and gas exploration extends to deep and ultra-deep wells, high bottom-hole temperature is prone to deteriorating the gelation and rheological properties of water-based drilling fluids, which manifests as undesirable thickening or thinning at elevated temperatures. Therefore, the development of high-temperature resistant and stable drilling fluids is crucial for ensuring safe and efficient drilling operations, and the enhancement of high-temperature performance is typically achieved by adding drilling fluid treatment agents. The main objective of this study is to apply sodium acetate (SA) to drilling fluid systems, developing an economical and efficient non-polymer treatment agent with dual functions as a composite sodium-modifier and a rheological regulator. By-product sodium acetate (TRSA) is adopted to provide better cost-effectiveness while maintaining equivalent performance, and its universality across seven types of bentonites is verified. Three grades of sodium acetate were added to the bentonites as either composite sodium-modifiers or rheological regulators. After high-temperature aging, rheological parameters, including mud density, plastic viscosity (PV), yield point (YP), and gel strength, were measured in accordance with standard API methods. The results indicate that adding 2 wt.% TRSA to drilling fluid and subjecting it to hot rolling at 180 °C for 16 h keeps the viscosity at a high shear rate (1022 s−1) nearly unchanged (from 36 mPa·s to 37.5 mPa·s), while increasing the viscosity at a low shear rate (5.11 s−1) from 250 mPa·s to 1400 mPa·s, thereby effectively improving the shear thinning effect of the sodium-modified calcium-based bentonite water-based drilling fluid. Although TRSA increases the filtration loss from 21.8 mL to 30 mL, this can be reduced to 20–25 mL by co-extrusion sodium modification with sodium carbonate or by adding additional TRSA to sodium-modified bentonite. This study provides a novel perspective for significantly improving the gelation characteristics and rheological properties of bentonite suspensions at high temperatures through a special inorganic substance, while realizing resource reuse and cost reduction.

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