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Shale gas has enormous potential and has become a hotspot in recent decades. To exploit shale gas, a variety of working fluids (drilling fluid, fracturing fluid, etc.) have to be applied in drillin...

Here, we report a water-soluble shale inhibitor for inhibiting shale hydrate formation. The copolymer denoted as thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was synthesized via triethanolamine, two maleic anhydrides, and glacial acetic acid. The infrared (IR) and gas chromatography (GC) results indicated that TGA is a low molecular weight polymer inhibitor (IR) and is the most commonly used method to identify compounds and molecular structures qualitatively. It is mainly used to study the molecular structure of organic substances and conduct qualitative and quantitative analyses of organic compounds. The main function of GC is for polymer molecular weight analysis. With the aid of shale rolling recovery experiments, particle size distribution experiments, triaxial stress experiment methods, bentonite slurry rate inhibition experiments, and thermogravimetric experiments to evaluate TGA inhibition characteristics, the inhibition effect of TGA is better than that of the traditional inorganic salt inhibitor KCl, polymer amine inhibitor UHIB, and organic cationic shale inhibitor NW-1. When the mass fraction is 0.2%, the cutting recovery rate increases from 18.3 to 94.1%. The compressive strength of the shale core after adding 1% TGA inhibitor is 177.9 MPa, which is close to the original core compressive strength of 186.5. The wet sodium montmorillonite crystal layer spacing after treatment with 0.5%, 1.5%, and 3% TGA aqueous solution is 1.38, 1.35, and 1.35 nm, respectively, and the sodium montmorillonite crystal layer spacing after diesel treatment is 1.34 nm, indicating that the inhibitory effect of TGA on sodium montmorillonite is equivalent to that of diesel and that TGA can effectively inhibit the hydration and dispersion of sodium montmorillonite. At the same time, the crystal layer spacing and the weight loss rate of sodium montmorillonite modified by TGA inhibitors did not change significantly after adsorption of deionized water, which proved that TGA inhibitors could be adsorbed in the crystal layer space of sodium montmorillonite to inhibit hydration and dispersion of sodium montmorillonite. Field test results show that TGA can significantly improve the inhibition performance of the field drilling fluid, and the effect is better than the strong conventional inhibition water-based drilling fluid system, which solves the problems of wellbore instability and considerable friction in horizontal shale sections and provides a new idea and method for efficient shale gas drilling.

In this work, the swelling, transformation, and dissolution of clay minerals after steam injection in heavy oil reservoir were investigated, and the damage mechanism of steam injection was discussed to research the microscopic mechanism of clay minerals on reservoir damage during steam injection in unconsolidated sandstone. The results show that the swelling of clay minerals increases with the increase of the pH of the brine and decreases with the increase of the salinity of the brine. As we all know, the swollen clay minerals are liable to fall from the inner wall of the pass, which may cause the blockage of reservoirs. What is more, the environment of high temperature and high pH would promote the transformation of the clay minerals. Montmorillonite can be transformed into illite and analcime, and kaolinite can be transformed—due to the water sensitivity of the clay mineral—to montmorillonite and analcime, whereas illite is relatively stable. For the movement of particles in the reservoir during the inj...

In this work, the adsorption behaviors of CH4 in slit-like kaolinite pores were investigated using the grand canonical Monte Carlo method. The research results show that the isosteric heat of adsorption of CH4 decreases with increasing pore size and that CH4 adsorption on kaolinite can be characterized as physical adsorption. The potential energy between CH4 and kaolinite was found to decrease with increasing pressure or decreasing pore size, indicating that the adsorption sites of CH4 changed from higher-energy adsorption sites to lower-energy adsorption sites. The CH4 adsorption capacity decreased with increasing pore size in mesopores. With increasing temperature, the isosteric heat of adsorption of CH4 decreased, and the adsorption sites of CH4 changed from higher-energy adsorption sites to lower-energy adsorption sites, resulting in a decrease of the CH4 adsorption capacity. As a result of van der Waals force interactions, Coulomb force interactions, and hydrogen-bonding interactions, the water molec...

The organic matter in organic-rich shales has an important significance for the methane adsorption capacity on shales. Kerogen is simplified to ideal graphite, and oxygenated functional groups are grafted onto graphite surfaces to obtain different O/C atomic ratios, reflecting varying maturation levels of kerogen. The adsorption behaviors of methane in the pores of graphite with different O/C ratios were investigated by the grand canonical Monte Carlo method. The results show that the isosteric heat of adsorption of methane is reduced with an increase in the pore size or a decrease in the O/C ratio. The methane adsorption capacity in micropores increases with an increasing pore size, whereas it decreases with an increasing pore size in mesopores. The methane adsorption capacity in pores with the same pore size decreases with decreasing O/C ratio. The proportion of the adsorbed gas in the pores decreases either with increasing pressure with the same pore size or with an increasing pore size under the same ...

Here we report a water-soluble acrylamide sulfonate copolymer for inhibiting shale hydrate formation. The copolymer, denoted as PANAA, was synthesized via copolymerization of acrylamide (AM), N,N-diallylbenzylamine (NAPA), acrylic acid (AA), and 2-(acrylamide)-2-methylpropane-1-sulfonic acid (AMPS). The performance of this new water-soluble copolymer for inhibiting shale hydration was investigated for the first time. The retention ratio of apparent viscosity of 2 wt % PANAA solution can reach 61.6% at 130 °C and further up to 72.2% with 12 000 mg/L NaCl brine. The X-ray diffraction studies show that the addition of copolymer PANAA (5000 mg/L), in combination with a low loading of KCl (3 wt %), remarkably reduces the interlayer spacing of sodium montmorillonite (Na-MMT) in water from 19.04 to 15.65 A. It has also found that these copolymer solutions, blending with KCl, can improve the retention of indentation hardness from 22% to 74% and increase the antiswelling ratio up to 84%. All results have demonstra...