FORMULATING MIXTURES OF NANOPARTICLES, POLYMERS AND SURFACTANTS TO STABILIZE HIGH VISCOSITY HIGH INTERNAL PHASE CO2-INWATER FOAMS

摘要

Hydraulic fracturing is ubiquitous and allows production of oilnand gas from unconventional reservoirs that previously were deemednas uneconomical for production. Hydraulic fracturing fluids arenrequired in this process to build up the pressure to fracture thenreservoir rock and also transport proppants deep into the newlynopened fractures to keep the fractures being open after the pumpingnstops. Water-based fracturing fluids such as slick-water and waterbasedngels which contain ~99% v/v of water are widely usednnowadays and lead to huge fresh water consumption. In averagenabout 5 million gallons of water were consumed per fracture job, andnin total the water consumed in drilling & completions accounts forn0.3% of US fresh water consumption each year. Large amount ofnwater consumption has a series of potential problems such as thenlimitations of water supply due to government regulations. Alsonespecially in offshore production, the water quality of the waternsupply may not meet the water quality required for hydraulicnfracturing operations and thus additional cost of water treatment.nFurther, it is observed that water-based hydraulic fracturing fluidsngive less than expected production in some reservoirs due to variousnmechanisms such as water-blocking in water-wet fractures, claynswelling and gel damage of the proppant bed.