ARMA 20–1702

Preventing Barite Sagging Using New Synthetic Layered Silicate in HP/HT Water-
Based Mud
Basfar, Salem. Abdullah

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King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, Eastern Region, Saudi Arabia
Elkatatny, Salaheldin. Mahmoud. and Mohamed, Abdelmjeed.
King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, Eastern Region, Saudi Arabia

Copyright 2020 ARMA, American Rock Mechanics Association

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 54th US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium held in Golden, Colorado, USA, 28 June-1
July 2020. This paper was selected for presentation at the symposium by an ARMA Technical Program Committee based on a technical and critical
review of the paper by a minimum of two technical reviewers. The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any position of ARMA, its
officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper for commercial purposes without the written consent
of ARMA is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 200 words; illustrations may not be copied. The
abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgement of where and by whom the paper was presented.

ABSTRACT: Barite is one of evaluated weighting materials in oil and gas drilling operations because it is inexpensive, and it can
rise the mud density up to 19 lb/gal. However, barite has these advantages, but it has the problems related to settling of its particles
known as barite sagging. The objective of this study is to add a different concentration of synthetic layered silicate (SLS) to the field
formula of WBM to prevent the sagging of barite in both static and dynamic condition at 250°F. In addition, the effect of SLS on
rheology will be conducted. Moreover, high pressure high temperature (HPHT) filtration test also performed to characterize the filter
cake thickness and filtration volume. The sagging experiments showed that adding 0.75 lb/bbl of SLS reduced the sag factor from
0.569 to 0.502 and from 0.58 to 0.51 in vertical and 45° inclined respectively. For the dynamic sag, the viscometer sag shoe test
(VSST) decreased from 2.3 lb/gal to 0.17 lb/gal after adding 0.75 lb/bbl of (SLS). Furthermore, the (YP/PV) was increased from 0.94
to 1.25 after adding 0.75 lb/bbl of (SLS). The HP/HT filtration loss decreased by 20% with decrease in the filter cake thickness.
The main findings of this study are expected to deliver a basis for ameliorative
rheology theusing
sag stability of weighting
anti-sagging materials
agents andin water-based
rheology
drilling fluids to drill HP/HT formation safely and reduce the cost ofmodifiers
drilling oil(Temple
and gas wells.
et al. 2005; Davis et al. 2017; Basfar
1. INTRODUCTION
et al. 2018; Elkatatny 2019), reducing the particle size of
Weighting agents are used to increase the density of the the weighting material (Mohamed et al. 2017; Boyou et
drilling fluid to efficiently control oil and gas well al. 2019), replacing the weighting material, or adding a
throughout the drilling operation (Hossain and Al-Majed combination of weighting materials (Abdou et al. 2018;
2015; Stroud 1922, 1926). The common weighting Basfar et al. 2019; Mohamed et al. 2019).
materials used in drilling applications are calcium
Because of the limited resources and high demand for
carbonate, barite, ilmenite, manganese tetroxide
barite, other alternatives to barite are needed to weigh the
Micromax, and hematite (Yao et al. 2014; Elkatatny et al.
drilling fluid for HPHT applications (Blomberg et al.
2012; Al-Yami et al. 2007; Tehrani et al. 2014). Because
1984). Research studies were conducted on the use of
of the good properties and low cost, barite is the most
ilmenite as an alternative weighting agent because of its
widely used weighting agent (Pozebon et al. 2005;
high density (4.7-4.79 g/cm3), availability, and acid
Nguyen et al. 2009; Ba geri et al. 2017). However, barite
solubility (Haaland et al. 1976; Tuntland et al. 1982;
sag is a serious issue when using barite-weighted fluids.
Elkatatny et al. 2012; Xiao et al. 2013). However, ilmenite
It occurs when solid particles separate from the liquid
abrasiveness to drilling fluid equipment is a major issue
phase and settle down (Bern et al. 2000; Omland et al.
(Bui et al. 2012), and it could be mitigated by using
2007). Because of the solids settlement, the fluid density
ilmenite with small particles, less than 3% of large
will vary, causing a serious well control issue (Saasen et
particles (greater than 45 µm) should be used (Blomberg
al. 2002; Zamora and Bell 2004), and interference with
et al. 1984). Micromax is another alternative weighting
the drilling and completion operations (Mohamed et al.
agent to barite. It has a high specific gravity (4.8), and the
2017). This phenomenon occurs in both directional and
fine particles of Micromax (around 1 µm) make the
vertical wells, whether under dynamic or static
abrasiveness and sag tendency of Micromax less than that
conditions, most commonly with dynamic conditions at
of barite (Mustapai 2011; Ma et al. 2019). Micromax is
low shear rates (Murphy et al. 2008).
reservoir friendly and causes less formation damage
Several studies were conducted to solve solids sag compared with other weighting agents (Al-Muhailan et al.
phenomenon in oil and water-based muds by training rig 2014).
personnel (Scott et al. 2004), optimizing drilling fluid

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This study aims to do extensive lab experiments to design VSST = 0.834( w2 − w1 ) (2)
a new water-based drilling fluid to prevent the barite where :
sagging under high-pressure high-temperature (HP/HT)
VSST : is viscometer sag shoe test (lb/gal)
situations by adding different ratios of new synthetic
layered silicate (SLS). w1 : is weight of 10 ml at the beginning (gm)
w2 : is weight of 10 ml after 30 min (gm)
2. MATERIALS AND EXPERIMENTS As recommended from the previous literature, the static
sag factor should be between 0.5 and 0.53, and the

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2.1. Materials
In this work, the water-based mud field formula is dynamic sag, the VSST should be less than 1 lb/gal to
prepared in the lab as shown in Table 1. To investigate the have weighting material in sustention.
synthetic layered silicate on barite sag, all additives are
kept constant and the SLS quantity adding stating from,
0.5, 0.75 and 1 lb/bbl
Table 1. Drilling fluid formula
Amount Mixing Time
Component
(g) (min)
Water 245 -
Defoamer 0.08 1
Soda ash 0.5 1
XC-polymer 1.5 20
Bentonite 4 10
SLS --- 15
Potassium a b
0.5 1
hydroxide
Starch 6 10 Fig. 1. Static sag set-up (a) vertical, (b) 45° inclined
PAC-R 1 10
Potassium
20 10
chloride
Calcium
5 10
carbonate
Barite 350 10

2.2. Experiments
The pH and density are evaluated for different
concentrated synthetic layered silicate at room
temperature and atmospheric pressure.
Static sag experiments are measured at 250°F and 500 psi
to prevent evaporation while heating using aging cell and
Teflon at vertical and 45° inclined situations Fig. 1 to Fig. 2. Dynamic sag set-up
evaluate the performance of SLS with different ratios. The After the optimum concentration of SLS was selected, the
optimum value of SLS is taken based on the sag factor in rheological properties such as plastic viscosity Equation
equation (1) 3, yield point Equation 4, and gel strength are evaluated
bottom at 250 °F to study the effect of SLS on stability od the
SF = (1) drilling fluid.
bottom + top
PV =  600 −300 (3)
where :
bottom : is density of the mud from the bottom part YP = 300 − PV (4)
of the aging cell
The filtration test is performed at 250 °F and 300 psi
top : is the density of the mud from upper part pressure difference at the static condition to evaluate
of the aging cell filtration volume and filter cake thickness after adding the
optimum concentration of SLS. The test was run using 10
For the dynamic sag, the viscometer sag shoe test (VSST) µm ceramic disc and HPHT filter press cell for 30 min.
was measured at 120 °F using model 900 viscometer in
Fig. 2 at 100 RPM for 30 minutes.

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3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Density and pH
Adding synthetic layered silicate to the blank water-based
mud did not affect the density of the mud, but it slightly
increases the alkalinity. The density of the drilling fluid
was 14.8 ppg for all ratio at ambient temperature as shown
in Fig. 3.

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Fig. 4. Vertical and 45° inclined static sag factor at 250 °F

Fig. 3. Effect of SLS on mud density and pH

3.2. Static and Dynamic Sag
The effect of synthetic layered silicate on sagging was
studied under static and dynamic conditions. The static
sag tests for both vertical and inclined conditions
indicated an improvement in the sag factor due to adding
SLS Fig. 4. The sag factor for the blank barite-weighted
mud was 0.57 at vertical state and 0.8 at an inclined state, Fig. 5. VSST of the WBM at 120 °F
which is out of the recommended range of 0.50–0.53
(Maxey 2007). After adding 0.75 lb/bbl SLS the sag factor 3.3. Rheology
reduced to 0.502 and 0.51 for vertical and inclined The drilling fluid rheology was examined to study the
conditions respectively. effect of adding the recommended 0.75 lb/bbl of SLS and
compare it with blank WBM. Fig. 6 shows that at 250°F
The dynamic sag test showed the benefits of adding SLS there are no changes in the plastic viscosity of the drilling
to the barite WBM as the VSST diminished from 2.3 fluid while the yield point increased almost by 40%. This
lb/gal at 100 wt.% barite to 0.17 lb/gal with 0.75 lb/gal increase will keep the cutting and barite particle in
Fig. 5, while the recommended VSST value is less than suspension according to increasing in YP/PV ratio.
1.0 ppg This reduction of sagging due to SLS enhanced
the yield point and gel strength as shown in the next
section.
From these tests, it’s recommended to use the
combination of 0.75 lb/gal SLS with barite, which can
minimize the sagging performance to the acceptable
range under the mentioned conditions.

Fig. 6. Effect of SLS on plastic viscosity and yield point

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The gel strength is the ability of drilling fluid to carry the Table 2. Summary of all properties
solids in the no circulation situation. As shown in Fig. 7 Property Unit WBM- 0.75
at 250 ° F, 0.75 lb/bbl of SLS increased the gel strength at Blank lb/bbl
10 sec, 10 min, and 30 min over the WBM-Blank (SLS)
indicates the drilling fluid can suspend the solid particles. Density ppg 14.8 14.8
pH -- 11.3 11.53
Sag factor -- 0.57 0.52

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VSST ppg 2.3 0.17
Plastic viscosity cP 23 23
2
Yield point lb/100ft 39 54
2
Gel Strength lb/100ft 21,23,2 31,43,45
6
Filtration volume cm3 6.2 5.6
Filter cake mm 3.35 2.95
thickness

Fig. 7. Gel strength of WBM at 250 °F 4. CONCLUSIONS

3.4. Filtration properties
The filtration performance of drilling fluid samples was
studied at 350 ℉ and 300 psi. As shown in Fig. 8 and
Table 2, adding SLS enhanced the filtration performance
of the drilling fluid. There is a slight decrease in the
filtration volume and the thickness of the filter cake. The
filtrate volume was decreased from 6.2 cm3 to 5.6 cm3, the
filter cake thickness was decreased from 3.35 mm to 2.95
mm. The fine particles of SLS improved the bridging
effect of the solid particles resulting in a thinner and more
packed filter cake. The less filtrate volume and filter cake
thickness, the better the filtration performance, and the
less damage caused to the drilled formation. Moreover,
the thinner the filter cake, the less possibility of stuck pipe
will be encountered during the drilling operation
In this paper, the effect of adding synthetic layered silicate
in the drilling fluid properties at a high temperature of 250
° F. As a result, the following points are concluded
• There is no effect of adding SLS on the drilling fluid
density since the amount of SLS was small. The pH
was a little increased.
• The presence of SLS improved drilling fluid
stability by minimizing the sag tendency in both static
and dynamic conditions.
• The 0.75 lb/bbl of SLS is recommended since it
enforced the sag factor and the VSST values to the
safe range.
• Adding 0.75 lb/bbl of SLS improved the stability of
WBM by increasing the YP/PV and increase the
three-gel strength, while the effect on HPHT filtration
performance was enhanced by decreasing the
filtration volume and filter cake thickness.

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