American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2016 - 80

SpecialReport: Drilling Fluids Update
and offshore Brazil," Donaldson says.
"TETRA CS Neptune is zinc free and
hence does not require zero-discharge
systems to work, and it has global environmental acceptability. In addition, it is
formulated with a neutral pH, so it poses
reduced health and safety risks to rig site
and plant personnel during handling."
Donaldson says TETRA CS Neptune
is a high density (up to 15.4 pounds per
gallon, 1.85 grams per milliliter) solidsfree fluid designed for well completion
and workover activities that also could
be formulated as a low-solids reservoir
drilling fluid.
Engineering new drilling and completion fluids is becoming more of a
challenge because of ever-stricter environmental requirements in areas such as
the Gulf of Mexico, but Donaldson points
out that technical constraints usually are
not as limiting a factor in their development. Unlike clear brine fluids, he notes
that TETRA CS Neptune can achieve increased density by adding solid weighting
materials.
"It provides lower crystallization temperatures than equivalent-density calcium
bromide brines, and is designed for temperatures ranging from minus 20 degrees
Fahrenheit to 325 degrees, and pressures
in excess of 18,000 psi," he adds.
The system outperforms zinc bromide,
and shows elastomer and metallurgy compatibility equivalent to calcium bromide,
Donaldson describes.
"While developing TETRA CS Nep-

tune, we ran more than 50 unique tests
covering more than 250 scenarios to validate its properties," he reports.
According to Donaldson, other features
include:
* Stability at elevated temperatures
and during storage;
* Ability to be mixed with standard
equipment;
* Ability be reclaimed for reuse with
standard technology;
* Compatibility with downhole elastomers and metallurgies; and
* A formulation based on renewable
products, ensuring continuity of supply.
"Overall, the cost of ownership is less
with TETRA CS Neptune than conventional zinc-based fluids, and far less than
cesium formate systems," Donaldson concludes. "Tetra Technologies is working
now on maximizing its fluid density."
Extended Reach Fluids And Efficiency
Halliburton/Baroid designed the
BaraShale™ high-performance WBM
system and BaraReach™ NAF extended-reach drilling system for the onshore
shale market, says Luis Mota, strategic
business manager for drilling and completions fluids for Baroid.
BaraShale systems allow customers
to customize mud properties with additives
and inhibitors to meet local conditions,
Mota says. "The real differentiator is we
have a system that is not focused only on
inhibition, but also on lubricity and trying
to maximize drilling performance in chal-

The BaraLogix™ density and
rheology unit (DRU) from Halliburton Baroid is an autonomous, automated device
that allows real-time measurements of fluid density and rheology, combined with trending
analysis visible to the well
construction team. The BaraLogix DRU can help reduce
risk, increase efficiency, and
communicate drilling performance in real time.

80 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

lenging shale plays," he details.
Mota adds that the WBM system was
engineered around the concept of delivering lower cost per barrel of oil equivalent,
as well as lower cost to drill these wells,
both in reaching the reservoir and then
maximizing its production. In addition
to efficiency gains, BaraShale systems
reduce environmental liabilities and disposal requirements, and overall maintenance costs, he states.
The BaraReach system still is in development, but according to Mota, the
NAF formulations will help operators of
extended-reach laterals deal with higher
torque and drag levels. He adds that its
commercial release is expected in early
2017. "We continue to develop customized
fluid systems for more challenging environments that are built off established
platform chemistries," he says.
In addition to its fluids systems, Mota
reports that Halliburton now offers BaraLogix™ services, which he describes
as an automated mud monitoring system.
"Ultimately, it will allow operators to
understand and characterize well performance, from not only a fluid standpoint,
but an overall well construction standpoint," he describes.
The automated mud monitoring units
now available measure real-time density
and viscosity, and the next generation will
incorporate a full suite of real-time mud
property measurements, he says. The data
are fed into an engineering software advisory system that allows operators to make
better drilling decisions as well as realtime predictive assumptions.
Halliburton plans to take the BaraLogix
service further and incorporate it into a
fully autonomous drilling advisory system,
Mota reveals. The idea is for the new
system to monitor all fluid properties in
real time, feed that information into a
real-time hydraulics model to allow operators to predict ahead of the bit while
drilling, and maximize drilling operations
without compromising equivalent circulating density or downhole pressures.
"When we say autonomous, we are
trying to move away from having individuals manually take the data, process
that data, and then provide a recommendation," Mota describes. "We want to
fully automate that process, so ultimately,
the system is autonomously issuing a
series of recommendations and flags. That
information is presented to the drilling
engineer to make a decision, based on the
output of the overall systems."

American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2016

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