Solids-Free Epoxy Sealant Materials' Injectivity through Channels for Remedial Job Operations

Abstract

Remedial cementing job is an important operation conducted in the petroleum industry to restore the primary cementing integrity of oil and gas wells. The remedial job is needed when the integrity of the primary cement is compromised and the wellbore is prone to fluids migration. This work studies the behavior of several sealants that can be used in a remedial job including solids-free material, semi-solids material, and Portland cement. The focus of this study is on testing the rheological behavior, the injectivity, the effect of the size of cement's voids on the injectivity of different sealants, and the strength of the sealants. Laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of several sealants in different cement's voids sizes. The results of this work demonstrate that solids-free materials such as epoxy resin has the highest injectivity among the tested sealants even in very small gaps. The epoxy resin develops higher compressive strength than that of the conventional Portland cement. This work points out the importance of selecting the appropriate type of sealant on the effectiveness of the remedial job.