Oil-swellable, desolvated polymer gels and methods of using the same for preventing loss of non-aqueous wellbore fluids to the subterranean formation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10160901-B2
Application number	US-201815963443-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 26, 2018
Priority date	May 17, 2017
Publication date	Dec 25, 2018
Grant date	Dec 25, 2018

Abstract

An oil-swellable gel lost circulation material (LCM) formed from an elastomeric polymer and a crosslinker amine is provided. The LCM may include gel pieces cut from gel strands formed from an elastomeric polymer and a crosslinker amine. The oil-swellable gel LCM composition may be formed by mixing an elastomeric polymer solution with a crosslinker amine and heating the mixture to form a crosslinked gel. The gel may be extruded through a die having orifices into a non-solvent and allowed to desolvate in the presence of the non-solvent. The gel strands may be dried and cut into gel pieces to form an LCM. The resulting LCM may swell when introduced to a loss circulation zone in the presence of a non-aqueous fluid such as a drilling mud or component of a drilling mud.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of cementing a well, comprising:
mixing an additive with a cement formulation to form an altered cement formulation, the additive comprising a plurality of gel pieces comprising an elastomeric polymer crosslinked using a crosslinker comprising an amine, wherein the elastomeric polymer includes a first monomer comprising an olefinically unsaturated hydrocarbon monomer and a second monomer comprising an epoxy pendant group;
introducing the altered cement formulation into an annular space in a wellbore, such that cement forms in the annular space.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second monomer comprises a glycidyl acrylate.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the elastomeric polymer comprises ethylene/methyl acrylate/glycidyl methacrylate terpolymer.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the amine comprises a polyamine comprising at least two primary amine groups.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the amine comprises at least one of tetraethylene pentaamine (TEPA), triethylene glycol diamine (TEGDA), polyoxypropylene triamine (POPTA), and diethyltoluenediamine (DETDA).

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein a diameter of each of the plurality of gel pieces is in a range of 1 millimeter (mm) to 5 mm.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a length of each of the plurality of gel pieces is in a range of 2 millimeter (mm) to 15 mm.

Assignees

• Saudi Arabian Oil Co
• Saudi Arabian Upstream Tech Company

Inventors

• Reddy B Raghava
• Hilfiger Matthew

Classifications

• C09K8/487

  Fluid loss control additives; Additives for reducing or preventing circulation loss · CPC title

• C08J3/12

  Powdering or granulating · CPC title

• C04B24/2688

  Copolymers containing at least three different monomers · CPC title

• E21B21/003

  Means for stopping loss of drilling fluid (plastering the borehole wall E21B33/138) · CPC title

• C08F8/32

  by reaction with amines · CPC title