TSU scientists are developing technologies of polysaccharide reagents with desired properties for drilling wells. Researchers have already created their own technology for producing low-viscosity polyanionic cellulose, a reagent that is a part of drilling fluids. The reagent has a high quality and is half of the price of foreign analogs. Now the pilot testing is being conducted in the laboratory, then it is planned to have commercial testing.
Wood cellulose is used for the production of a reagent by TSU scientists. The technology enables reduction of raw material consumption by 1.5 - 2 times per tonne compared with the known analogs, while the quality of synthesized reagents is no worse. So, their foreign counterparts have a price of 200,000-300,000 rubles per ton, and a sample of TSU scientists costs about 100,000 -140,000 rubles.
The cost reduction occurs by peculiarities of the technology that allow more efficient use of the chemical reagents in the synthesis and reduce the intensity of side reactions as well as a further modification of the product with special reagents. All this leads to an overall reduction of the cost of the drilling fluid, and hence reducing expenses for the construction of wells.
- Low-viscosity polyanionic cellulose is used in the composition of water-based drilling fluids, - says Konstantin Minaev, the project manager, senior researcher at SPhTI TSU. - It forms a thin and impervious crust along the borehole, which leads to reduced filtering. This helps to reduce the loss of drilling fluid, to keep the diameter of the annular space, and to decrease hydraulic resistance in the wellbore.
By 2017, TSU scientists plan to develop another high quality and cheap agent for oil production - high-viscosity polyanionic cellulose, which will provide the desired properties of the drilling fluid (deformation and flow).