FILTRATION AND RHEOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF NATURAL RUBBER LATEX ADDED DRILLING FLUID
Keywords:
Natural rubber latex, Hevea brasiliensis, drilling mud, lost circulation additive, static filtrationAbstract
Drilling fluids play a very important role in rotary drilling activities. It is necessary to control their properties to optimize and to enhance efficiency of drilling operation. The objective of this study is to measure filtration and rheological properties of water-based mud using natural rubber latex (NRL)additive which is derived from the Hevea brasiliensis tree. This ecologically-friendly biopolymer water-based mud was tested by API RP 13B standard procedure for testing water-based drilling fluids.The effects of NRL concentration and temperature on filtration properties were investigated. The test results can be summarized as follows; (1) The presence of NRL containing mud had better static filtration properties compared to base bentonite mud, (2) The influence of elevated temperature showed negative effects on filtration properties by increasing fluid loss rate, (3) The rheological parameters of NRL containing mud increased with an increase of NRL concentration and temperature except plastic viscosity which slightly decreased with increasing temperature, and (4) The NRL could be used as drilling fluid additive for borehole having bottom hole temperature up to 80oC without thermal degradation.
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