New lightweight cement technology, based on increased cement fineness, has been developed in response to problems associated with cementing primary oilfield casings in cold environments. When low density slurries are required at low temperature conditions, adequate compressive strengths may be difficult to obtain. The new technology presented in this paper, called ultrafine cement, offers lightweight cement slurries (10.0 lb/gal-13.0 Ib/gal) which exhibit much higher early compressive strengths than conventional lightweight systems when cured in cold environments (40°F - 80°F).

By means of laboratory investigation, this paper introduces ultrafine cement as a unique lightweight primary cementing material. Performance properties of ultrafine slurries are discussed and comparisons to commonly used lightweight cements are presented.

Keywords:
expansion, slurry density, compressive strength, cement formulation, ib gal, lightweight slurry, cold environment, oilfield, ultrafine cement, cement chemistry
Subjects:
Casing and Cementing, Cement formulation (chemistry, properties)
Copyright 1991, Society of Petroleum Engineers
You can access this article if you purchase or spend a download.