Nanosilica dispersion for thermally insulating packer fluid

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10316238-B2
Application number	US-201715700879-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 11, 2017
Priority date	Sep 11, 2017
Publication date	Jun 11, 2019
Grant date	Jun 11, 2019

Abstract

A method to control a heat transfer profile in a defined space, the method comprising the steps of introducing a thermally insulating packer fluid into the defined space such that the thermally insulating packer fluid forms a gelled solid and reduces a rate of heat transfer through the defined space as compared to a prior rate of heat transfer through the defined space before introducing the thermally insulating packer fluid, where the thermally insulating packer fluid comprises an acidic nanosilica dispersion and a polyamine.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method to control a heat transfer profile in a defined space in a subterranean operation, the method comprising the step of:
introducing a thermally insulating packer fluid into the defined space such that the thermally insulating packer fluid forms a gelled solid and reduces a rate of heat transfer through the defined space as compared to a prior rate of heat transfer through the defined space before introducing the thermally insulating packer fluid, where the thermally insulating packer fluid comprises a nanosilica dispersion and a polyamine, where the nanosilica dispersion comprises amorphous silicon dioxide, an acidic stabilizer comprising acetic acid, and water.

2. The method of claim 1 , where the polyamine comprises a polyethylene polyamine.

3. The method of claim 1 , where the step of introducing the thermally insulating packer fluid into the defined space includes the steps of separately introducing the nanosilica dispersion and introducing the polyamine.

4. The method of claim 1 , where the step of introducing the thermally insulating packer fluid into the defined space includes introducing the nanosilica dispersion and the polyamine together.

5. The method of claim 1 , where the nanosilica dispersion comprises amorphous silicon dioxide in a range of about 5 weight percentage of the total weight of the amorphous silicon dioxide and water (w/w %) to about 50 w/w % of the total weight of the amorphous silicon dioxide and water.

6. The method of claim 5 , where the nanosilica dispersion comprises water in the range of about 50 w/w % to 95 w/w % of the total weight of the amorphous silicon dioxide and water.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of maintaining the nanosilica dispersion in the defined space for a period of time between about 0.5 hours to about 24 hours.

8. The method of claim 1 , where the defined space has a temperature that is at or greater than about 100° F.

9. The method of claim 1 , where the defined space is selected from the group consisting of: a defined space in a wellbore, a defined space in a hydrocarbon-bearing formation, a defined space proximate a pipeline, an annulus, and combinations thereof.

10. The method of claim 1 , where the reduction in the rate of heat transfer through the defined space causes heat dissipation through the defined space to take about 10 times as long as compared to heat dissipation at the prior rate of heat transfer through the defined space, where the defined space comprises water before introducing the thermally insulating packer fluid.

11. The method of claim 1 , where the polyamine comprises a polyethylene polyamine selected from the group consisting of: diethylenetriamine, ethylenediamine, tetraethylenepentamine, triethylentetramine, pentaethylenehexamine, hexaethyleneheptamine, and combinations thereof.

Assignees

• Saudi Arabian Oil Co

Inventors

• Wagle Vikrant
• Al-Yami Abdullah
• Alsaihati Zainab
• Alhelal Abdulaziz

Classifications

• E21B36/003

  Insulating arrangements · CPC title

• C09K8/467 Primary

  containing additives for specific purposes · CPC title

• C09K8/422

  specially adapted for sealing expandable pipes, e.g. of the non-hardening type · CPC title

• C09K2208/10

  Nanoparticle-containing well treatment fluids · CPC title

• E21B33/14

  for cementing casings into boreholes · CPC title