Abstract
Drilling in deepwater environments poses many challenges, due its narrow operational window. Very common problems at this scenario are low fracture strength and big losses of drilling fluid while drilling. In order to mitigate these problems, various resin systems such as epoxies, phenolics, and furans have been reported in the literature. However, hyperbranched epoxy resin is a new class of polymers that promises to be a good choice for application in narrow window drilling operations, due its particular properties. In fact, hyperbranched resins are attracting attention of scientific community because of their unique structure and properties, such as low solution and melt-viscosity, good reactivity and faster curing time compared to their linear counterparts. Barua et.al has synthetized a low viscosity hyperbranched epoxy resin from non-hazardous and environment friendly substrate, the glycerol. The hyperbranched epoxy resin was evaluated by use of several procedures at room temperature – e.g., compressive and viscosity tests. Also, equipment has been designed and built in order to evaluate wellbore strengthening properties of developed material under simulated downhole conditions. This paper presents results that illustrate the capacity of this new system to cure losses and improve mechanical properties of the formations.
