Title: Comparison of rheological and lubricity properties of polymer beads and glass beads in water-based mud

Authors: Issham Ismail; Shahrir Hashim; Azmi Kamis; Azman Ikhsan; Nur Suriani Mamat; Faizall Nazir

Addresses: Department of Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Petroleum and Renewable Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia ' Department of Polymer Engineering, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia ' Department of Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Petroleum and Renewable Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia ' Department of Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Petroleum and Renewable Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia ' Department of Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Petroleum and Renewable Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia ' PETRONAS Carigali Sdn. Bhd., PETRONAS Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur City Centre, 50088 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract: Torque and drag become a major problem in succeeding the extended reach drilling (ERD). One of the techniques used to mitigate torque and drag is using lubricant in water-based mud. In this study, the solid lubricants used were glass beads as it is chemically inert, non-toxic, and non-abrasive, and also the polymer beads of improved physical properties, namely tensile strength and izod impact strength. This study was performed in order to determine the most suitable size of glass and polymer beads that could give the optimum performance of lubricity in drilling mud. The experimental results showed that the rheological properties of water-based mud with glass and polymer beads were found to be comparable to the water-based mud without glass and polymer beads, but the resulted coefficient of friction was 48% lower than the water-based mud. In a nutshell, polymer beads were found to be more effective than glass beads.

Keywords: coefficient of friction; CoF; lubricating agents; lubricity; polymer beads; solid lubricants; water-based mud; WBD; glass beads; rheological properties; rheology; torque; drag; extended reach drilling; ERD; bead size; mud drilling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMATEI.2013.057150

International Journal of Materials Engineering Innovation, 2013 Vol.4 No.3/4, pp.225 - 240

Published online: 19 Jul 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article