STUDY OF THE VISCOSITY OF WATER-OIL EMULSIONS CONTAMINATED WITH DRILLING FLUID
Oil, water-oil emulsion, drilling fluid, viscosity, BSW
The oil and natural gas industry has several stages that converge to a common goal, which is to produce products of commercial interest, to support its economic viability. Two of the first stages of this industry are crucial to its viability: Well Drilling and Primary Oil Processing. The first is essential for the production of oil and natural gas, since not having producing wells it is impossible to drain the hydrocarbons from the reservoirs to the surface. The second is responsible for specifying the oil to transport the production area to the refineries, where it is transformed into products of commercial interest. In the state of Rio Grande do Norte these two stages coexist in relative tranquility, because one depends on the other to continue their operations and to enable the continuity of production. There is, however, a need for the well drilling step to discard degraded drilling fluids that conflict with the primary processing stage, because the disposal of such fluids is done in the production pipelines, which send the crude oil to the primary processing. Since primary processing is central, this conflict negatively influences all oil production in the state. This project aims to evaluate the interference of components normally used in the drilling fluids formulated for the oil and natural gas fields in the state of Rio Grande do Norte in the viscosity of water-oil emulsions, which in turn interfere directly in the capacity of primary petroleum processing, implying financial losses for the industry.