By Colter Cookson

If a drilling fluid engineer from 10years ago looked at the fluids used today,much would seem familiar. Barite still isa common weighting agent, uintahite re-mains a popular fluid loss-control additive,and oil-based muds still see more playthan their water-based counterparts inparticularly demanding wells.

However, all of those truths may changewith time, as bright minds in the drillingfluids sector refine old technologies anddevelop new ones to create fluid systemsthat offer greater performance, lowercosts, and smaller environmental footprints.One of the latest innovations include anadditive for water-based muds (WBMs)that greatly reduces the need for barite.

Water-Based Fluid

Following its July acquisition of TheMud Masters Group LLC, Horizon MudCompany reports it is refining HorizonClear Fluid SystemTM–formerly the MasterClear Fluid system–to increase its per-formance in horizontal wells.

“Our goal is to encourage operatorsin the Permian Basin and other horizontalplays to replace the OBMs they tradi-tionally have used in lateral sections withan environmentally safe WBM,” saysRonnie Farish, the company’s vice pres-ident and chief operating officer.

Clear Fluid-enhanced WBMs sharemany OBM strengths, including excellentshale inhibition, low fluid loss in hightemperature/high pressure environments,thin filter cakes, low dilution costs, andhigh lubricity, as well as the ability toproduce a near-gauge hole, Farish says.He indicates the inhibition occurs because

the carbohydrate solids in the fluid createan osmotic demand for the water greaterthan the formation’s.

Using a WBM rather than an OBM canreduce costs significantly, contends RaymondGriffin, vice president of sales for Horizonand Mud Masters. “In general, switchingfrom an OBM to a WBM with the ClearFluid decreases mud-related drilling costsby 50 percent. That comes not only fromthe reduced cost for the mud itself, but alsofrom eliminating disposal costs and theneed for diesel,” he says.

To demonstrate the savings, Griffincites a Delaware Basin well in ReevesCounty, Tx., where an operator employed

the Clear Fluid System to drill an 8.5-inch hole with 13.4 parts per gallon fluidfrom 10,339 to 15,235 feet. The sectioncost less than a third of the estimatedcost required to drill a comparable sectionin the same region using OBMs, Griffinsays. He attributes this savings partly toWBMs’ ability to reduce or eliminate thecosts associated with trucking OBM toand from the rig, storing it in tanks,cleaning the cuttings and remediating thesite, as well as lower costs per barrel andless lost circulation.

The Clear Fluid also has proven ef-fective in Midland Basin wells, Griffinsays, noting it has been used there to

New Drilling Fluids Meet Shale Needs

The Horizon Clear Fluid SystemTM from Horizon Mud Company has been successful inmud- and air-drilling applications across the United States. The company says it is refin-ing the system, which gives water-base muds many of the strengths typically associatedwith oil-base muds, to improve its performance in horizontal wells.

The “Better Business” Publication Serving the Exploration / Drilling / Production Industry

NOVEMBER 2014

Reprinted in part for Horizon Mud Company with permission from The American Oil & Gas Reporter

drill 25 exploration laterals and 25 de-velopment wells within the past twoyears. “On many of the Wolfcamp laterals,we have started with wellbore strength-ening sweeps that have built into lowviscosity properties that have drilled suc-cessfully to total depth,” Griffin says. “Ifhole problems are indicated, higher con-centrations of Clear Fluid have beenadded to increase inhibition.

“Another huge advantage of the Hori-zon Clear Fluid System is that it hastremendous fluid loss sealing attributesand a high natural density,” Griffin says.“It can provide fluid density with signif-icantly less barite. This reduces the ECD,

making the fluid easier to pump andkeeping the well within its porepressure/fracture gradient window.”

The Clear Fluid is robust enough thatit is easy to tailor the system for the ap-plication, Griffin says. “If a well only re-quires a small amount of inhibition, wecan use 15 percent Clear Fluid. But if weneed to, we can go to 70 percent ClearFluid,” he details.

The system has been deployed suc-cessfully on more than 75 drilling mudjobs spread across Arkansas, East andSouth Texas, Montana, Pennsylvania, Vir-ginia, West Virginia and Wyoming. Italso has provided great results in air mist-

ing applications on more than 250 air-drilled wells on the East Coast and inArkansas, Griffin reports. He predicts itwill find new applications as the companyproves different formulas.

“Right now, we are focusing on im-proving the low-end rheology for hori-zontal wells in the Permian Basin,” Farishsays. “We have developed a new productfor the Clear Fluid System, Clear Seal-5PlusTM, which provides the viscous cou-pling needed for optimized hole cleaningin the lateral section. This should makethe fluid even more effective in large-di-ameter horizontals.” �

SpecialReport: Drilling Fluids Technology