FORMULATION OF DRILLING FLUIDS FOR HIGH TEMPERATURE WELL APPLICATION USING SABAH BENTONITE
Abstract: The objective of
this work is to investigate the rheological performance of a locally-sourced bentonite from
Sabah for use as drilling
fluid against a
commercial benonite from
India. The rheological properties
of the drilling fluids were obtained by using standard testing apparatus such as mud
balance, viscometer and
filter press. It
was observed that
the Sabah bentonite
has lower values of density, gel
strength (GS), plastic viscosity (PV), yield point (YP) and filtration loss as compared to
the Indian bentonite.
The Malaysian bentonite
did not meet
the API required viscometer reading
of 600 rpm.
However it was
found that by
adding 1.0 ppb
of NaOH as an additive
to the mud, the rheological performances of the mud improves significantly to
meet the API standard. Economic analysis indicates that the treated Sabah bentonite mud is much cheaper than the
Indian bentonite by as much
as 61%. The
results of this
work showed that
the locallysourced treated
bentonite is technically
and economically feasible
for use as
drilling fluid application.
Author: Sonny Irawan and Irwan
Anwar
Journal Code: jptsipilgg100004
