Aphron-Microbubbles: A Friendly Innovation in Enhancing Water-Based Mud Performance for Future Drilling Operations in Iraqi Depleted

Waleed K. Mutter; Faleh H. Mohammed; Maryam M. Ahmed

doi:10.52716/jprs.v16i3.933

Authors

Waleed K. Mutter Department of Petroleum Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Baghdad, Iraq.
Faleh H. Mohammed Department of Petroleum Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Baghdad, Iraq.
Maryam M. Ahmed 3Petroleum Research and Development Center, Ministry of Oil, Iraq

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52716/jprs.v16i3.933

Keywords:

Aphron -microbubbles; Drilling fluid; Filtration; Rheological properties; Low-weight mud.

Abstract

Microbubble-based Aphron drilling fluids (ADFs) are becoming a viable option of the mud system in the oil and gas sector nowadays and for good reason, they can pass through reservoir rocks without being left inside the tiny pores. Surfactants are the source for developing microbubbles inside the conventional drilling and completion fluids that improve the main characteristics of the drilling mud including density, rheology, filtration and wellbore stability. Most of the oilfields in northern Iraq are in the state of depletion and can’t be drilled using the conventional drilling fluids due to the lost circulation and instability problems.

This study investigates the role of Aphron -a microbubble drilling fluid that excels in decreasing the potential of circulation loss inside the borehole by minimizing the differential pressure. Hence, several ADFs with low density were developed using environmentally friendly surfactants, such as CTAB and SDBS at different concentrations. All the necessary measurements of density, pH, viscosity, gel strength and filtration properties were performed according to the American Petroleum Institute (API) standards.

The obtained results show that Aphron-microbubbles have a major impact on the density where it was lowered by 32%. In addition, the fluid loss rate was lowered by 46% with 0.15% w/v of the SDBS surfactant.

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