Chemically tagged polymers for simplified quantification and related methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9388332-B2
Application number	US-201213663613-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 30, 2012
Priority date	Oct 30, 2012
Publication date	Jul 12, 2016
Grant date	Jul 12, 2016

Abstract

Method comprising the steps of obtaining a sample of a return drilling fluid, the return drilling fluid containing a tagged detectable additive, the tagged detectable additive comprising a polymer comprising at least one chemical tag bonded to the polymer; and determining a concentration of the tagged detectable additive in the return drilling fluid based on a spectroscopic signal of the sample. The tagged detectable additive may include a polymer comprising at least one chemical tag bonded to the polymer.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
obtaining a sample of a return drilling fluid, the return drilling fluid containing a tagged detectable additive, the tagged detectable additive comprising a polymer comprising at least one chemical tag covalently bonded to the polymer wherein the chemical tag comprises a plurality of compounds containing radio-labeled isotopes of at least one from the group consisting of 13 N, 18 F, 76 Br, 123 I, and 124 I; and
determining a concentration of the tagged detectable additive in the return drilling fluid by measuring the concentration of the at least one radio-labeled isotope in the sample.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the drilling fluid is an oil-based drilling fluid.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the concentration of the tagged detectable additive in the oil-based drilling fluid is in the range of 0.25 lb/bbl to 12 lb/bbl.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the drilling fluid is a water-based drilling fluid.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the concentration of the tagged detectable additive in the water-based drilling fluid is in the range of 1 lb/bbl to 30 lb/bbl.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer is a styrene-acrylate based polymer.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer has a molecular weight of about 10,000 to about 4 million Daltons.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer has a molecular weight of about 100,000 to about 2 million Daltons.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer has a molecular weight of about 500,000 to about 1 million Daltons.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:
before use of the drilling fluid for the drilling operation, adding a known amount of the radio-labeled isotope to the drilling fluid; and
creating a calibration curve by measuring a mass spectrum for at least two different concentrations of the radio-labeled isotope in the drilling fluid,
wherein the concentration of the sample is determined by comparing the spectrum of the sample to the calibration curve.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:
before use of the drilling fluid for the drilling operation, adding a known amount of the radio-labeled isotopes to the drilling fluid;
obtaining a calibration curve by measuring the at least one radio-labeled isotope for at least two different concentrations of the tagged detectable additive in the drilling fluid,
wherein the concentration of the sample is determined by comparing the amount of radio-labeled isotope in the sample to the calibration curve.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the tagged detectable additive further comprises a styrene-acrylate copolymer.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the drilling fluid is placed in the well bore to react with tar present at a specific location therein.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the drilling fluid is placed into the well bore during drilling of the well bore.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the styrene-acrylate copolymer comprises: at least one unit selected from the group consisting of a styrene, a substituted styrene, and any derivative thereof; and at least one unit selected from the group consisting of -acrylate, -methacrylate, -ethylacrylate, -propylacrylate, -butylacrylate, -tert-butyl-acrylate, -n-hydroxyethyl methacrylate, -potassium acrylate, -pentabromobenzyl acrylate, -methyl methacrylate, -ethyl methacrylate, -n-nitrophenyl acrylate, -methyl 2-(acyloxymethyl)acrylate, -cyclohexyl acrylate, -n-ethylhexyl acrylate, and any derivative thereof.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the steps of: contacting tar resident in a well bore with the tagged detectable additive; and
allowing the tagged detectable additive to interact with the tar to at least partially reduce the tendency of the tar to adhere to a surface.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the styrene-acrylate copolymer is introduced into the drilling fluid after the drilling fluid contacts the tar in the well bore.

Assignees

• Halliburton Energy Services Inc

Inventors

• Deville Jay Paul
• Livanec Phillip Wayne
• Eldin Sherif

Classifications

• E21B47/1015

  Fixed Constructions · mapped topic

• G01N2001/1031

  Sampling from special places · CPC title

• G01N1/10

  in the liquid or fluent state {(burettes, pipettes B01L3/02; sampling of ground water E02D1/06; metering by volume of fluids or fluent solid material G01F11/00, G01F13/00)} · CPC title

• C09K8/03 Primary

  Specific additives for general use in well-drilling compositions · CPC title

• E21B47/11

  using tracers; using radioactivity · CPC title