Improving Performance of Water-Based Drilling Fluid by Optimization of Barite Nanoparticle Size and Concentration

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of adding barium sulfate nanoparticles (NPs) on the performance of water-based drilling fluids. Fluid loss, lubricity, fracture pressure and the performance of lost circulation materials (LCM) with the use of NPs were the main domains that were studied. One of the main objectives was to investigate the effect of NPs size distribution and concentration in different weighted water-based drilling fluid systems to minimize filtration into the different porous media. Filtration behavior was studied by changing different variables to develop a model for three drilling fluid compositions, and a predictive model was developed to predict fluid loss. Based on the results of hydraulic fracturing, a predictive model was developed to predict fracture pressure based on permeability and fluid loss reduction. The coefficient of friction of the water-based drilling fluids was studied with and without NPs and the results show that using barite NPs improves lubricity. Barite NPs in water-based drilling fluid also improve the performance of LCM in the presence of other solid materials. The overall findings demonstrate that improvement of water-based drilling fluid performance is achievable by adding barite NPs even at the low concentrations.