Influence of size and surface acidity of silica nanoparticles on inhibition of the formation damage by bentonite-free water-based drilling fluids. Part II: dynamic filtration

Johanna Vargas Clavijo, Leidy J Roldán, Laura Valencia, Sergio H Lopera, Richard D Zabala, José C Cárdenas, William Durán, Camilo A Franco and Farid B Cortés

Abstract

Although the application of nanoparticles in drilling fluid has been reported under static test by our research group, understanding inhibition formation of damage by filtration volume reduction in porous media under dynamic conditions is still a crucial issue. In this research, synthesised silica nanoparticles modified with acid treatment (Si11A) evaluated in previous results in the bentonite-free water-based drilling fluid (BFWBM) in static tests were analysed in the coreflooding test under dynamic and reservoir conditions. Si11A nanoparticles were evaluated by permeability return tests under reservoir conditions overburden, pore, and overbalance pressures, and temperatures of 3000 psi, 1700 psi, 1200 psi, and 87 °C, respectively. Coreflooding test with a concentration of 0.1 wt% Si11A nanoparticles based on our previous work showed a reduction in the filtration volume by 77%, decreasing the formation damage by 51% compared to the drilling fluid without nanoparticles. Also, the oil recovery obtained with the best design fluid using the Si11A nanoparticles was 10% higher than the baseline. Additionally, the effluents of crude oil obtained from permeability return test were evaluated at reservoir temperature using a rotational rheometer at shear rates varying between 1 and 100 s ⁻¹, obtaining a reduction of the viscosity up to 28% during nine pore volume injected using the BFWBM with S11A nanoparticles. The role of the nanoparticles in the drilling fluid is the rapid deposition in the mudcake to enhance the properties, the subsequent filtration volume reduction, and the enhancement of the petrophysics properties may be described by dynamic filtration curves, effective oil permeability and relative permeability curves.