Reuse of produced water in drilling fluids based on reverse emulsion and its influence on the fluid properties
Reuse of produced water, drilling fluid, oily residue and olefin Base fluid.
Oil production plays a key role in the economy and society development. However, during all its stages, including drilling, there are environmental impacts that must be minimized. This environmental problem is long-standing, and has emerged with the generation of residues considered toxic, which cannot be disposed or deposited in the environment without a previous treatment, once that they cause severe losses. The oil industry has Olefin base drilling fluid and produced water as considerable volume wastes, generated during the exploration and production stages. The decrease in the environmental liabilities generated by the demand for drilling fluids through the reuse of produced water is a promising approach once that it shows that the oil industry can reinvent itself and work to absorb their own waste, avoiding the use of clean water in the formulation and decreasing the final volume of residue. In this work, Olefin-based drilling fluids containing 20-40% of produced water without any treatment were formulated and tested, being numerous tests have been carried out with the water produced and the drilling fluids. The potential for inhibition of the residue was verified and if it had inhibition compatible with the aqueous phases, already used for olefin-based fluids, the produced water simulated a residue with a high degree of difficulty in relation to its treatment, containing oil in the form emulsified, real produced water (AP) was also tested. Comparisons between the fluids currently used and those from this study were made using a factorial design 33. It was possible to verify the influence of the produced water, viscosifier and emulsifier in the rheological properties and electrical stability of the fluid emulsions. In addition, a rheometer was used in order to obtain predictive results of greater reliability. Corrosion analysis with different produced water and fluids formulated from them were performed, being its corrosion potential in relation to the Olefin base fluid currently used in drilling operations. The tests showed that the produced water, although corrosive, does not affect the corrosion potential of the drilling fluids, because once emulsified it is not the wetting/external phase of the fluid. Thus, knowing that the drilling fluid must meet the needs of the drilling operation, developing its functions appropriately, it was verified the behavior of the rheological parameters and whether the residues could affect the fluid performance in relation to well cleaning. Therefore, simulations in commercial software for a typical offshore well geometry were performed. According to the simulated directional design, the last phase corresponding to the open hole starts in the horizontal section of 90°. The fluids manufactured with produced water presented a performance equivalent to those already used and similar corrosion. For all studied flowrates, the simulation presented satisfactory cleaning for the following criteria: solids concentration less than 6% and relative height less than 15%. Considering the well clean and heterogeneous cleaning pattern, making it a promising alternative.