Method of drilling boreholes with invert emulsion drilling fluids having enhanced rheology

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9296937-B2
Application number	US-201313791958-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 9, 2013
Priority date	Mar 6, 2010
Publication date	Mar 29, 2016
Grant date	Mar 29, 2016

Abstract

An invert emulsion drilling fluid, and a method of drilling with such fluid, having improved rheology effected with addition of a fatty dimer diamine additive in the presence of little or no lime. The drilling fluids of the present invention exhibit similar yield points and gel strengths at temperatures ranging from about 40° F. to about 375° F. or higher and at pressures ranging from about 0 psi to about 13500 psi.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for drilling a well in a subterranean formation comprising:
providing an invert emulsion drilling fluid having an oleaginous continuous phase, a non-oleaginous discontinuous phase, a rheology modifier comprising a fatty dimer diamine additive, and less than 0.3 ppb lime; and
drilling at least a portion of the well in at least a portion of the subterranean formation while the invert emulsion drilling fluid is circulated in the well.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the drilling fluid has a yield point that is about the same at temperatures ranging from about 40° F. to about 180° F.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the drilling fluid comprises from about 0.25 ppb to about 18 ppb of fatty dimer diamine.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the drilling fluid has a 10 minute gel strength that is effectively the same at temperatures ranging from about 40° F. to about 180° F.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein drilling fluid has a yield point that is about the same at pressures ranging from about 0 to about 5000 psi and at temperatures ranging from 40° F. to 180° F.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the drilling fluid has a 10 minute gel strength that is about the same at pressures ranging from about 0 to about 5000 psi and at temperatures ranging from 40° F. to 180° F.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the drilling fluid comprises no lime.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the fatty dimer diamine has 28 to 48 carbon atoms per molecule.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the drilling fluid is organophilic clay-free.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the fluid has a yield point and a 10 minute gel strength that are each about the same along the depth of the well during drilling from 0 feet to 20,000 feet with the temperature in the well increasing at a rate of about 1° F. to about 2.1° F. per 100 feet of depth.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the oleaginous continuous phase comprises: a synthetic oil comprising an ester or olefin; a diesel oil; or a mineral oil selected from the group consisting of n-paraffins, iso-paraffins, cyclic alkanes, branched alkanes, and mixtures thereof.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the non-oleaginous discontinuous phase is an aqueous solution containing a water activity lowering material selected from the group consisting of: alcohols; sugar; salts selected from the group consisting of calcium chloride, calcium bromide, sodium chloride, sodium bromide, and formate; and combinations thereof.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the invert emulsion fluid comprises at least one additive selected from the group consisting of: a weighting agent; an inert solid; a fluid loss control agent; an emulsifier; a salt; a dispersion aid; a corrosion inhibitor; an emulsion thinner; an emulsion thickener; a viscosifier; an HPHT emulsifier-filtration control agent; and any combination thereof.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the weighting agents are selected from the group consisting of: barium sulfate; heamatite; calcium carbonate; and any combination thereof.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the drilling fluid has a mud weight in the range of about 9 ppg to about 18 ppg.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the drilling fluid has an oil:water ratio in the range of about 50:50 to about 95:5.

17. The method of claim 1 further comprising drilling, running casing and/or cementing the well in the subterranean formation.

18. A method for drilling in a subterranean formation comprising:
providing an invert emulsion drilling fluid having an oleaginous continuous phase, a non-oleaginous discontinuous phase, a fatty dimer diamine, and less than 0.3 ppb lime, wherein the drilling fluid has a yield point and a gel strength that are each effectively the same at temperatures ranging from about 40° F. to about 180° F.; and
drilling at least a portion of a wellbore in at least a portion of the subterranean formation while the invert emulsion drilling fluid is circulated in the wellbore.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the drilling fluid comprises no lime.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the fatty dimer diamine has 28 to 48 carbon atoms per molecule.

21. The method of claim 18 wherein the drilling fluid is organophilic clay-free.

22. The method of claim 18 wherein the oleaginous continuous phase comprises: a synthetic oil comprising an ester or olefin; a diesel oil; or a mineral oil selected from the group consisting of n-paraffins, iso-paraffins, cyclic alkanes, branched alkanes, and mixtures thereof.

23. The method of claim 18 wherein the drilling fluid has a mud weight in the range of about 9 ppg to about 18 ppg.

24. The method of claim 18 wherein the drilling fluid comprises from about 0.25 ppb to about 18 ppb of the fatty dimer diamine.

25. The method of claim 18 wherein the drilling fluid has an oil:water ratio in the range of about 50:50 to about 95:5.

26. The method of claim 18 further comprising running casing and/or cementing in the wellbore in the subterranean formation.

27. A method for drilling a well in a subterranean formation comprising:
providing an invert emulsion drilling fluid that consists essentially of an oleaginous continuous phase, a non-oleaginous discontinuous phase, a rheology modifier comprising a fatty dimer diamine additive, and less than 0.3 ppb lime; and
drilling at least a portion of the well in at least a portion of the subterranean formation while the invert emulsion drilling fluid is circulated in the well.

Assignees

• Halliburton Energy Services Inc

Inventors

• Wagle Vikrant Bhavanishankar
• Maghrabi Shadaab Syed
• Kulkarni Dhanashree Gajanan

Classifications

• C09K8/36 Primary

  Water-in-oil emulsions · CPC title

• E21B43/16

  Enhanced recovery methods for obtaining hydrocarbons · CPC title