ABSTRACT
Unlike conventional oil field drilling fluids, polymers are non-toxic, degradable and cause no serious environmental problems. This paper provides information regarding the microstructural behavior of polymers and presents a detailed description of their physical and chemical properties. It also investigates the performance of polymers with respect to drilling and cementing problems such as hole enlargement, shale stabilization, drilling through difficult formations which may cause ion contamination, drilling at high temperatures and cement bond with the formation.
Through experimental and field studies, this work shows which polymers provide optimum carrying capacity, acceptable fluid loss to the formation, smaller filtration cake and thus, the polymers which can be used to obtain a successful liner or casing cementing with less chance of gas leakage.
