STUDY OF NANOMATERIALS IN NON-AQUEOUS DRILLING FLUID
Nanotechnology, nanomaterials, petroleum, drilling fluids
The petroleum industry lives in constant modernization, always aiming to improve its well drilling performance. For this, it has been researching the importance of nanomaterials together with fluids in the drilling process. The use of nanotechnology can improve rheological and structuring characteristics of the well, reduce energy costs with pumping fluids and reduce impacts on the environment, for example. The use of nanomaterials can replace traditional methods that are ineffective, expensive and harmful to the environment, in order to minimize the loss of fluid to the formation, maintain stable well pressure, reduce the risks of differential arrest, among other problems. In this work, the physicochemical and rheological properties of non-aqueous drilling fluid with the addition of alumina (Al2O3) and strontium nickel (SrNiO3) nanomaterials at different concentrations were studied, in addition to the filtration properties and thermal performance that are of extremely important for well stability. From the results, it was verified that the fluids with nanomaterials presented smaller volumes of filtrate and greater performance of keeping the temperature of the fluids high, when compared to the fluid without the nanomaterials. Changes in the rheological properties of the fluid were also observed.