The purpose of this experimental study is to investigate the impact of physical and chemical mud contaminations on cement-formation bond strength for different types of formations. Physical contamination occurs when drilling fluids (mud) dries on the surface of the formation forming a mud cake while chemical contamination on the other hand occurs when drilling fluids which is still in the liquid form interacts chemically with the cement during a cementing job. Wellbore cement has been used to provide well integrity through zonal isolation in oil & gas wells and geothermal wells. It has also used to provide mechanical support for the casing and protect the casing from corrosive fluids. Failure of cement could be caused by several factors ranging from poor cementing, failure to completely displace the drilling fluids to failure due to casing. A failed cement job could result in creation of cracks/micro annulus through which formation fluids could migrate to the surface which could lead to sustained casing pressure, contamination of fresh water aquifer and blow out in some cases. To achieve proper cementing, the drilling fluid should be completely displaced by the cement slurry. However, this is hard to achieve in practice, some mud is usually left on the wellbore which ends up contaminating the cement. This study focuses on the impact of contamination on the shear bond strength and the changes in the mineralogy of the cement at the cement-formation interface.

Wellbore cement has been used to provide well integrity through zonal isolation in oil and gas wells as well as geothermal wells. Failures of wellbore cement result from either or both: inadequate cleaning of the wellbore and inappropriate cement slurry design for a given field/operational application. Inadequate cementing can result in creation of fractures and microannuli, through which produced fluids can migrate to the surface, leading to environmental and economic issues such as sustained casing pressure, contamination of fresh water aquifers and, in some cases, well blowout. To achieve proper cementing, the drilling fluid should be completely displaced by the cement slurry, providing clean interfaces for effective bond. This is, however, hard to achieve in practice, which results in contaminated cement mixture and poor bonds at interfaces. This paper reports findings from the experimental investigation of the impact of drilling fluid contamination on the shear bond strength at the cement-formation and the cement-casing interfaces by testing different levels of contamination as well as contaminations of different nature (physical vs. chemical). Shear bond test and material characterization techniques were used to quantify the effect of drilling fluid contamination on the shear bond strength. The results show that drilling fluid contamination is detrimental to both cement-formation and cement-casing shear bond strength.

No abstract

In this study, we investigated the effect of compression on the micromechanical and the petrophysical properties of salted wellbore cement systems. The experiments were conducted using a customized bench scale model, which utilized an expandable tubulars simulating the compression of a previously cemented casing under field-like conditions. The "mini-wellbore model" sample consisted of a pipe inside pipe assembly with a cemented annulus. The cement samples were cured in a water bath for 28 days prior to the compression experiments to allow adequate hydration. The impact of compression on the cement's petro-physical and mechanical properties was quantified by measuring the porosity, permeability and hardness of salt cement cores drilled parallel to the orientation of the pipe from the compacted cement sheath. Permeability (Core-flood) experiments were conducted at 21˚C, 10,342 kPa confining pressure for a period of 120 minutes. During the core-flood experiments, conducted using Pulse-decay method, deionized water was flowed through cement cores to determine the permeability of the cores. The results obtained from these experiments confirmed that the compression of the cement positively impacted the cements ability to provide long term zonal isolation, shown by the effective reduction in porosity and permeability. Furthermore, the results confirm reduction in the detrimental effect of salt on the strength and stiffness in post-compression cement.