Experimental study of the influence of Potassium Chloride salt on the rheological properties of Carboxyl Methyl Cellulose (CMC) and Poly Anionic Cellulose – Regular (PAC-R) mud type at increasing temperature

Abstract

Drilling mud is a mixture of water and clay, weighing materials and few chemicals which is called additives to stabilize the wellbore pressure. Drilling fluids, affects drilling operations. The cost of drilling fluid has been a major issue during operation and the effect of salinity on the additives has also resulted into investigation of determine if other additives can be used as a substitute to the predominant used ones. To that effect, this work was focused to determine the effect of salinity on the rheological properties of mud type prepared with Carboxyl-methyl cellulose (CMC) and polyanionic cellulose-regular (PAC-R). From this study, salinity effect shows that as the salinity of drilling mud are increased, the effectiveness of the polymer decreases. This has a negative effect on the rheological properties of drilling mud. Plastic viscosity decreases with increasing temperature and yield point increases with increasing temperature. Also, the thixotropic property (gel strength) of both PAC-R and CMC muds increases with temperature but decreases on the introduction of salt. It can also be deduced that the ability to suspend cuttings for both KCl and CMC mud are unique.