American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2015 - 95

SpecialReport: Drilling Fluids Technology

New Fluid Systems Cut Drilling Costs
By Colter Cookson

Water sustains life, so it is only fitting
that it also plays a role in producing the
energy that sustains Americans' quality
of life.
Water's role in drilling fluids is expanding as chemists and engineers at
companies both big and small find ways
to close the performance gap between
muds based on oil and water. The goal is
simple, those companies indicate: Give
operators a high-performance water-based
mud that costs less, performs similar to
oil-based mud, and reduces health, safety
and environmental risks.
Other innovations in fluids technology
are designed to take the guess work and
time out of deploying lost circulation
materials, and to increase the consistency
of fluid-loss additives.
Drilling fluids technology providers
continue to develop WBM systems to
overcome the challenges of drilling long
horizontal laterals through shale formations
that swell on contact with water. Jim
Friedheim, drilling solutions marketing
and technology manager for M-I SWACO,
a Schlumberger company, says the key
is developing water-based fluids that have
the stability properties of oil-based products in water-swellable shale and clay
intervals.
"(Operators have) preferred oil-based
muds in shale plays because they offered
the speed and wellbore stability needed
to economically and reliably drill, case
and complete the long horizontals that
maximize reservoir contact," he observes.
"Our objective was to develop a fitfor-purpose WBM that could provide
'drillability' and wellbore stability comparable to an OBM, but reduce disposal
costs," Friedheim relates. "We wanted
to offer the economic benefits of drilling
with a WBM without compromising the
performance levels of an OBM."
By assembling a top-notch team and
drawing on its experience in both onshore
and offshore shales, Friedheim says M-I
SWACO managed to design and test the
HydraGlyde high-performance waterbased drilling fluid system in less than a
year.
The HydraGlyde system has three
main components, he says. "The key is
the HydraSpeed rate of penetration enhancer, which lubricates both the bit and

drill pipe to lower torque and drag in
order to enhance penetration rates," Friedheim says. "This component provides a
secondary benefit: It creates a thin, highquality filter cake that enhances wellbore
stability and reduces fluid leak-off. The
cake is slick, so it contributes to the low
torque and drag."
The system's other main components
are HydraHib primary shale inhibitor,
which prevents shale swelling, and the
HydraCap encapsulator, which minimizes
clay dispersion, Friedheim continues.
"Although they appear in lower concentrations, both benefit from lessons learned
with products for 'gumbo' drilling in
the Gulf of Mexico (plastic or flowing
shales in shallower sections), where reactive shales present a much larger problem."
After getting great results in the laboratory, Friedheim says M-I SWACO partnered with Permian Basin operators to
conduct field trials. As of mid-September,
the company had completed six trials
with the entire system and six with the
HydraSpeed ROP enhancer.
"The performance has been as good
as we projected," he reports. "We have
seen 20 percent reductions in surface
torque in the lateral sections, and rates of
penetration approaching or exceeding
those of OBM. In fact, one operator set a
company record using the system.
"By eliminating the waste transportation and disposal costs associated with
OBMs, the new system reduces the operator's overall cost per barrel of drilling
fluid by 40 percent," he adds.

The system is easy to deploy, is compatible with most additives, and resists
contaminants, Friedheim reports. It is designed to work in temperatures as high
as 300 degrees Fahrenheit, which he says
should meet the needs of 80 percent of
U.S. unconventional wells.
"We are doing field trials in Texas,
but in the long run, we plan to adapt the
HydraGlyde system for use in the Williston
Basin and Marcellus Shale, two plays
that have been particularly challenging
on WBM performance," Friedheim says.
"We are excited to bring a smaller environmental footprint and lower cost to
unconventional plays."

Reducing Fluid Costs
Operators are focused on cost, observes
Steve Wilson, vice president of Permian
Basin operations for Horizon Mud Company. "In many cases, they are trying
different casing designs and experimenting
with other changes to save money, which
is creating new problems. With a carefully
engineered drilling fluid, we often can
solve those problems and enable the well
to be drilled at a lower cost," he says.
The focus on cost has made it more
important to develop fluids that have
nothing extra, suggests Ronnie Farish,
Horizon's chief operating officer and
vice president. He says the company's
water-based Clear Fluid SystemTM has
the flexibility to achieve that goal in
almost any well.
"We can go from a mildly inhibitive
fluid to the most inhibitive water-based
mud on the market," he states. "At the

The HydraGlyde water-based drilling fluid system from M-I SWACO, a Schlumberger
company, delivers penetration rates comparable to those of oil-based muds in highangle build and long-lateral sections. With its optimized hole cleaning and exceptional
wellbore stability, M-I SWACO says the system is ideal for U.S. shale plays.

OCTOBER 2015 95

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