Methods of formulating conductive wellbore fluids

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11268379-B2
Application number	US-201716097825-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 3, 2017
Priority date	May 3, 2016
Publication date	Mar 8, 2022
Grant date	Mar 8, 2022

Abstract

A method of formulating an oil-based wellbore fluid, the method comprising adding at least a plurality of conductive carbon black agglomerates or pellets having an average size of at least 500 μm to an oleaginous base fluid, and applying energy to the oil-based wellbore fluid to disperse the plurality of conductive carbon black agglomerates or pellets into the oleaginous base fluid as finer particles than the agglomerates or pellets.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method of formulating at least one oil-based wellbore fluid, the method comprising:
providing conductive carbon black agglomerates comprising physically fused primary carbon black particles that form carbon black aggregates having branched and fibroid-like structures entangled to form the conductive carbon black agglomerates, wherein the carbon black aggregates have, when measured using Di-Butyl-Phthalate (DBP) absorption method, a pore volume of at least about 200 cm 3 DBP/100 g carbon black and up to about 500 cm 3 DBP/100 g carbon black, and further wherein conductive carbon black agglomerates have an average size of 500 μm to 5 mm;
adding the conductive carbon black agglomerates to an oleaginous base fluid to form an oil-based wellbore fluid; and
applying energy to the oil-based wellbore fluid by shearing or at least one dispersion method to disperse the conductive carbon black agglomerates into the oleaginous base fluid as finer particles than the conductive carbon black agglomerates.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: circulating the oil-based wellbore fluid in a subterranean well.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising performing electrical resistivity measurements of the subterranean well.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the conductive carbon black agglomerates are added to the oleaginous base fluid in an amount so as to permit electrical logging of the subterranean well.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the oleaginous base fluid is selected from the group of diesel oil, a natural oil, a synthetically derived oil, a mineral oil, a silicone oil, or a combination thereof.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the oil-based wellbore fluid has an electrical conductivity of at most 0.02 S/m when measured at 20 kHz.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising: forming a filtercake with the oil-based wellbore fluid on at least a portion of a wall of a subterranean well, wherein the filtercake has an electrical conductivity of at least two orders of magnitude higher than the oil-based wellbore fluid.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one dispersion method comprises mixing, stirring, sonicating, or a combination thereof.

9. A method of formulating an oil-based wellbore fluid, the method comprising:
providing an oleaginous base fluid;
providing conductive carbon black agglomerates comprising physically fused primary carbon black particles that form carbon black aggregates having branched and fibroid-like structures entangled to form the conductive carbon black agglomerates, wherein the primary carbon black particles have a volatile content below about 1% by weight, and further wherein conductive carbon black agglomerates have an average size of 500 μm to 5 mm;
adding the conductive carbon black agglomerates to the oleaginous based fluid to form an oil-based wellbore fluid; and
applying energy to the oil-based wellbore fluid by shearing or at least one dispersion method to disperse the conductive carbon black agglomerates into the oleaginous base fluid as finer particles than the conductive carbon black agglomerates.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising: circulating the oil-based wellbore fluid in a subterranean well.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising: performing electrical resistivity measurements of the subterranean well.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the oleaginous base fluid is selected from the group of diesel oil, a natural oil, a synthetically derived oil, a mineral oil, a silicone oil, or a combination thereof.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the conductive carbon black agglomerates are added to the oleaginous base fluid in an amount so as to permit electrical logging of a subterranean well.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the oil-based wellbore fluid has an electrical conductivity of at most 0.02 S/m when measured at 20 kHz.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising: forming a filtercake with the oil-based wellbore fluid on at least a portion of a wall of a subterranean well, wherein the filtercake has an electrical conductivity of at least two orders of magnitude higher than the oil-based wellbore fluid.

16. The method of claim 9 , wherein the at least one dispersion method comprises mixing, stirring, sonicating, or a combination thereof.

17. The method of claim 9 , wherein the volatile content of the primary carbon black particles is below about 0.7% by weight.

Assignees

• Mi Llc
• Schlumberger Technology Corp

Inventors

• Price Hoelscher Brandi Katherine
• Bovet Cara
• Okhrimenko Albert

Classifications

• C09K8/34 Primary

  Organic liquids · CPC title

• E21B49/00 Primary

  Testing the nature of borehole walls; Formation testing; Methods or apparatus for obtaining samples of soil or well fluids, specially adapted to earth drilling or wells · CPC title

• E21B7/00

  Special methods or apparatus for drilling · CPC title

• E21B33/138

  Plastering the borehole wall; Injecting into the formation · CPC title

• G01V3/20

  operating with propagation of electric current · CPC title