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WELLBORE CLEAN-UP
CHEMISTRY
INTRODUCTION

Much has been written in the past several years regarding various displacement systems that were designed to effectively clean-up not only casing and tubulars, but to remove the filter cakes left behind by various drilling fluids.  Each type of drilling fluid being used has presented its own set of problems when it comes to the displacement of that fluid, and subsequent wellbore clean-up.  Synthetic Oil Mud (SOM) has proven to be the most difficult to clean-up.  Some of the same properties that have made SOM a superior fluid have also contributed to their stubbornness to clean up efficiently.

Integrity Industries, Inc., has spent countless hours on the development of a clean-up system that would function over a wide range of drilling fluids and is the most effective at cleaning up synthetic muds of any on the market today.  Whether it be PAO’S, LAO’S, IO’S, ESTERS, or our own IA-35 Synthetic fluid, we learned from studying the results of numerous test being performed that the synthetic oil muds were not cleaning up as well as their counterparts, despite being displaced with various spacers claiming to do the job.  Even after the mud was displaced and followed by a clear brine and filtered to a 20 or 40 NTU reading there was still a residual emulsion attached to the tubulars.  It was therefore logical to assume that in an open hole completion there was probably a significant portion of the filter cake being left behind as well.  It has been well documented that production impairment and formation damage is associated with poor clean-ups of impermeable filter cakes.  In a test done by one major operator, they defined “inadequate removal of drilling fluid filter cakes as the most important source of restricted fluid inflow and impaired production.”

It was therefore determined that an effective displacement and clean-up should be able to accomplish the following:

1.      Total destruction of the filter cake (enhanced by internal breaker).

2.      Penetrate the oily layer of filter cake and disperse it.

3.      Water wet formation and/or tubulars.

4.      Separate oil, water, and solids.

5.      Break emulsion matrix.

The results of our testing have produced “THE THERMABREAK SYSTEM.”  It consists of an internal breaker (when needed) which is Thermabreak.  Thermasolve, which will react with Thermabreak, if present, and other filter cake constituents, to penetrate, dissolve, and water wet.  Finally Thermawash, a unique surfactant blend that can be diluted with sea water or brines as a final cleaning stage.