Experimental investigation of fluid loss and cake thickness control ability of zirconium (IV) oxide (

A major technical and economical concern of the oil well drilling industry is the potential damage to productive formations because of excessive drilling fluid filtration and its multiplier effect on cake thickness. High fluid loss (high cake permeability) results in thick filter cake which reduces the effective diameter of the hole (tight holes) and causes various problems such as excessive torque when rotating the pipe, excessive drag when pulling it and high swab and surge pressures due to reduced hole diameter and differential pipe sticking due to increase in pipe contact. It is in this light that the potential of Zirconium (IV) oxide (Z_r O_2) nanoparticles in combating excessive filtration problem in Water Based Mud was investigated. Preliminary results show that addition of 0.50g (Z_r O_2) nanoparticle concentration brought about 19.10% reduction in fluid loss and 14.29 % reduction in cake thickness for the High Temperature/ High Pressure (HPHT) filtration test at 500psi and 250 OF. Similarly, the highest reduction of 48.31% and 38.10% in fluid loss and cake thickness respectively was achieved with addition of an optimum concentration of 2.0g of (Z_r O_2) nanoparticles for the HTHP filtration test at the same temperature and pressure

Uncertainties quantification and modelling of different rheological models in estimation of pressure losses during drilling operation

The determination of pressure losses in the drill pipe and annulus with a very high degree of precision and accuracy is sacrosanct for proper pump operating conditions and correct bit nozzle sizes for maximum jet impact and forestalling of possible kicks and eventual blow outs during drilling operation. The two major uncertainties in pump pressure estimation that are being addressed in this research work are the flow behavior index (n) and the consistency index factor (k). It is in this light that the accuracy of various rheological models in predicting pump pressure losses as well as the uncertainties associated with each model was investigated. In order to come by with a decisive conclusion, two synthetic based drilling fluids were used to form synthetic muds known as sample A and B respectively. Inference from results shows that the Newtonian model underestimated the pump pressure by 78.27% for sample A and 82.961% by for sample B. While the Bingham plastic model overestimated the total pump pressure by 100.70% for sample A and 48.17% for sample B. Three different power law rheological model approaches were used to obtain the flow behavior index and consistency factor of the drilling fluids. For the power law rheological model approaches, an underestimation error of 23.5743% was encountered for the Formular method for sample A while the proposed consistency index averaging method reduces the error to 14.9306%. The Graphical method showed a reasonable degree of accuracy with underestimation error of 5.6435%. Sample B showed an underestimation error of 47.8234% by using the power law formula method while the Consistency averaging method reduced the error to 20.7508. The graphical method showed an underestimation error of 0.4318%

Novel Synthetic-Based Drilling Fluid through Enzymatic Interesterification of Canola Oil

Over the years, the oil industries have avoided aromatic, naphthenic, and paraffinic oils as drilling mud base fluids principally because of their detrimental environmental issues on pelagic and benthic marine ecosystems as a result of their toxicity and nonbiodegradability coupled with the possible deterioration of the oil itself and the rubber parts of the drilling equipment because the aromatic hydrocarbons present in the oil have a tendency to dissolve/damage elastomers present in rubber. Hence, possible insights into how to chemically and/or physically produce synthetic base drilling fluids whose cuttings are nontoxic, readily biodegradable, environmentally friendly, and of nonpetroleum source become imperative. In this study, enzymatic interesterification of canola oil was done with ethanol by using enzyme lipase as catalyst under optimum conditions of temperature and pressure and the physicochemical properties of the produced ester were evaluated and compared with that of diesel and a synthetic hydrocarbon base fluid (SHBF). Results show that the specific gravity, kinematic viscosity, dynamic viscosity, and surface tension of canola oil were reduced by 5.50%, 94.74%, 95.03%, and 9.38%, respectively, upon enzymatic interesterification to conform to standard requirements. Similarly, increased |mud ability to pump fluids and possibility of cold temperature environment can be achieved with the reduction in pour point and cloud point, respectively, of the produced canola oil ester. Finally, the produced ester showed no aromatic content as confirmed from its FTIR analysis which indicates its nontoxicity, biodegradability, and environmental friendliness

Sidetrack and Recompletion Risk Evaluation - Waterflooded Reservoir

Sidetrack or recompletion time (tR) is optimized for the pair of a production and injection well simultaneously under uncertainty with respect to expected monetary value (EMV) or risked net present value (NPV) as the objective function to properly understand and shed more light on the critical parameters influencing tR. The option to sidetrack or not is also evaluated. Analysis is aided by a recent time dependent analytical waterflood performance model with respect to cumulative injected water for adequate economic analysis. There exist two zones, a productive and lower zone and a lesser producible upper zone that has low recoverable reserves, of which both zones are penetrated by both wells. The injection well enhances oil production in the production well by the displacement mechanism of waterflooding. Though sidetrack is simultaneous considering negligible time interval between sidetrack of both wells, it is actually a sequential operation with regards to the decision tree schematic. A possible outcome is, if sidetrack to produce from the upper zone fails, then no sidetrack to the upper zone through the injection well. Decision tree analysis is brought to fore considering the probability of success (POS) of continual production (injection) from (to) the producing zone and production (injection) commencement possibility for the upper zone. Uncertainty of parameters including POS in evaluating the objective function, EMV, is made possible by probable values using distributions for Monte Carlo simulation run. EMV and tR are optimized for each run by constraining tR to either, after water breakthrough time to the lower zone or from time 0. The objective function is solved with a constrained non-linear generalized gradient optimization scheme. Significant match was obtained for waterflood performance, and NPV of each terminal branch of the decision tree between the analytical approach and reservoir simulator generated data. Notably, optimal tR obtained through the analytical approach is highly dependent on POS of production and injection from (to) the upper zone. Evaluation of possible dependencies of POS is essential as regards to the sequential operation brought largely by geological uncertainties and may be to a lesser extent by the sidetrack operation based on the influence of probable pathways. Other criteria for selection of optimal time are more suitable for selection of an optimal range and not a single value. These criteria in essence, boost the EMV and cannot stand alone as an optimization tool

Impact of Applied Potential on the Structural and Non-lubricated Wear Composite Coating in Petrochemical Industry

The need to improve the structural properties of materials in petrochemical industry, due to recurring failure, has motivated this study. The effect of deposition potential on structural integrity, surface topography and micromechanical progression of Zn based induced aluminium and TiO2 alloy coating series on mild steel was studied. The wear stability and microhardness behaviour of the developed composite coating was examined via, respectively, sliding reciprocating rig and dura scan diamond based microhardness tester. The structural reliability was inspected with scanning electron microscope equipped with EDS, and atomic force microscope. The results showed that the superb structural crystal resulted into a significant increase in the microhardness, and into a decrease in wear plastic deformation in a non-lubricated system. The precipitation of the deposits enforces stable crystal orientation and compact grains growth. The work has established that up to 13wt% TiO2 on zinc rich bath, a solid composite coating on mild steel, can be used to improve the service life of coating for stable structural properties

Experimental and theoretical studies of (E)-N′-1-(4-propylbenzylidene)nicotinohydrazide as corrosion inhibitor of mild steel in 1 M HCl

The efficiency of a novel Schiff base namely (E)-N′-1-(4-propylbenzylidene)nicotinohydrazide (PBNH) was investigated as corrosion inhibitor of mild steel (MS) in 1M HCl using weight loss technique at 303 and 313 K. It was established that corrosion rate of mild steel increases with increase in temperature and concentration of HCl. Results showed that PBNH considerably inhibited the corrosion of mild steel in a 1 M HCl solution and inhibition efficiency is about 70% at 4 × 10−4 M PBNH at both temperatures. The inhibition efficiency of PBNH increased with an increase in concentration and temperature. The adsorption model obeys the Langmuir adsorption isotherm and the kinetic-thermodynamic model and the value of free energy of adsorption, ΔGads indicated that the adsorption of PBNH was a spontaneous process and was both an electrostatic-adsorption (physisorption) and adsorption on the basis of donor-acceptor interactions (chemisorption). Thermodynamic parameters calculated show the spontaneity and endothermic nature of the process and also reveal the favourable affinity of PBNH towards the mild steel surface. Quantum chemical calculations based on PM3 method was performed on PBNH and calculated parameters gave useful information to explain the interaction between the surface of metal and PBN

Data on optimization of production parameters on Persea Americana (Avocado)plant oil biodiesel yield and quality

Biodiesel hascontinuedtoreceiveenormouspatronagefrom worldenergydemandasaresultofitsrenewablenature,low toxicity,rapiddegradation,robustfuelperformanceandlow emission characteristicsanditsoverallenvironmentalfriendliness. Hence, thesedatashowedtheoptimizationoftemperature, catalystconcentrationandtypeofcatalyst,alcoholtypeand alcohol tooilmolarratioandreactiontimeonAvocadoplantoil biodiesel yieldandqualityproducedviaalkali-catalyzedtranses- terification reaction.Dataonthequalityofthebiodieselproduced by usingtheAmericanStandardforTestingMaterials(ASTM) proceduresforbiodieselcharacterizationwithdifferentcon- centrations ofalcoholandcatalystundervaryingtemperaturesand reaction durationsarealsoprovided.Thetestedbiodieselproper- ties arethecold flowproperties(pourpointandcloudpoint)and the criticalparameterssuchaskinematicviscosityat40 °C, specific gravityat15 °C, flash point,cetanenumber,calorific value,iodine value,acid number and sulphated ashpercentag

Comparison of the efficiency of sodium nitrate and superphosphate as nutrients in the bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbon polluted water

The effect of Aspergillus Niger stimulated with 0.2M sodium nitrate and 0.2M single superphosphate fertilizer (nutrients) was investigated in this study. The ambient temperature averaged 29oC all through the 25 days of the research. The comparison was done using three setups- two samples of the hydrocarbon polluted water were amended with the nutrients and with Aspergillus Niger. The third sample served as control. After twenty five days, it was observed that the sample amended with 0.2M sodium nitrate went through the highest amount of bioremediation: For the total hydrocarbon content, the sample with 0.2M sodium nitrate in it dropped by 78.62% (393 – 84mg/L), the sample with 0.2M superphosphate in it - 72.5% (393 – 108mg/L) and the control sample with the lowest drop of 52.16% (393 – 188mg/L). For the biological oxygen demand, the sample with 0.2M sodium nitrate in it dropped by 71.60% (1832.6 – 520.47), the sample with 0.2M superphosphate in it dropped by 63.37% (1832.6 – 671.3mg/L) and the control sample had the lowest drop of 50.27% (1832.6 – 911.29mg/L). The pH of the samples with nutrients in them were initially acidic but became less acidic with time while the control sample which was initially neutral became more acidic

INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF YTTRIUM OXIDE (y2O3 ) NANOPARTICLE ON THE RHEOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF WATER BASED MUD UNDER HIGH PRESSURE HIGH TEMPERATURE (HPHT) ENVIRONMENT

Be informed that plastic viscosity (PV), yield point (YP) and gel strength of Water Based Mud (WBM) system decrease exponentially with increasing temperature until a mud system fails owing to the thermal degradation of the solid, polymers and other components of the mud sample at High Pressure-High Temperature conditions (HPHT). Hence, it then becomes imperative for continuous research into a thermally stable nanoparticle that can annul this abysmal effect and produce a Water Based mud system that can be applied to wells with HPHT conditions without the fear of impending failure. In this research, six samples of water based mud were prepared with varying amount of Yttrium oxide nanoparticle concentrations as well as a controlled sample without a nanoparticle. Results showed that a thermally stable rheological properties was achieved by an optimum nanoparticle concentration of 2.50g at temperature of 300OF and pressure of 10,000psi with only 13.33%, 9.67%, 13.33% and 15.63 % reduction in PV, YP,10seconds and 10minutes gel strength respectively. Whereas, a water based mud system without nanoparticle has an ignominious reduction of 88.10%, 77.6%, 75% and 70% reduction in PV, YP,10seconds and 10minutes gel strength respectively under the same temperature of 300OF and pressure of 10,00psi which indicates an outright failure of the mud sample to carry cuttings

Modification of Bingham Plastic Rheological Model for Better Rheological Characterization of Synthetic Based Drilling Mud

accurately represent the behaviour of the drilling fluid at very low shear rates in the annulus and at very high shear rate at the bit. Hence, a dimensionless stress correction factor is required to correct these anomalies. Hence, this study is coined with a view to minimizing the errors associated with Bingham plastic model at both high and low shear rate conditions bearing in mind the multiplier effect of this error on frictional pressure loss calculations in the pipes and estimation of Equivalent Circulating Density (ECD) of the fluid under downhole conditions. In an attempt to correct this anomaly, the rheological properties of two synthetic based drilling muds were measured by using an automated Viscometer. A comparative rheological analysis was done by using the Bingham plastic model and the proposed modified Bingham plastic model. Similarly, a model performance analysis of these results with that of power law and Herschel Buckley Model was done by using statistical analysis to measure the deviation of stress values in each of the models. The results clearly showed that the proposed model accurately predicts mud rheology better than the Bingham plastic and the power law models at both high and low shear rates condition