In recent years, nanomaterials have attracted researcher's attention especially in the field of oil and gas. Nanomaterials based research results showed an improved performance in the areas of cement, drilling fluid and enhanced oil recovery. In this study, the effects of Boron Nitride (BN) microparticles on mechanical friction, fluid loss and viscosity were investigated. Boron Nitride (BN) microparticles were dispersed in a solution of Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and Fe2O3 nanoparticles were dispersed in Xanthan gum (XG) solution in water. Both fluids were treated with KCl and bentonite to create laboratory drilling fluid systems, which were studied at 22 °C.

The results show that the addition of 0.0095 wt. % BN and Fe2O3 reduced the mechanical friction coefficients of the laboratory drilling fluids by 37 %, and 43 %, respectively. Fe2O3 nanoparticles reduced the API static filtrate loss by 14.3 %, but the addition of BN didn't show any impact on filter loss. The particles have also shown an impact on the drilling fluid's viscosity parameters. The essence of this study is to understand the effect of nanoparticles on the drilling fluid performance and to get the better idea of how nanoparticles can contribute to improve the drilling fluid properties.

Keywords:
drilling fluids and materials, drilling fluid chemistry, drilling fluid formulation, drilling fluid property, friction, drilling fluid selection and formulation, Upstream Oil & Gas, lubricant, fe 2, viscosity
Subjects:
Drilling Fluids and Materials, Drilling fluid selection and formulation (chemistry, properties)
Copyright 2018, Society of Petroleum Engineers
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