UMPC – Unidade Móvel de Pesquisa Científica: um sistema desenvolvido para aferições em tempo real das propriedades físico-químicas de fluidos de perfuração

Abstract

During the last decade, the drilling process has been experiencing considerable technological advances and has achieved deeper wells, better productivity, safety and flexibility during drilling operations. A symbol of modern drilling is the directional drilling, which usually have a better cost/benefit ratio when compared to conventional wells (purely vertical). To drill directionally, a conglomerate of science and state of the art technologies is necessary, starting from new metal design and ending on automated torque control system and steering. However, it is known from the first drilled well that, from a certain depth, the use of drilling fluids is essential to the viability of the whole process. The drilling fluids have the primary function to cool and lubricate the system under high friction, perform cleaning of the well in relation to cuttings generated by drilling, apply pressure on the rock formation to control the invasion of the fluids contained in it and give structural stability. Despite its notorious importance, the technologies used to quantify and control the physicochemical properties of such fluids have not changed over the past fifty years. Viscosity, density, electrical stability, concentration of water in oil and concentration of total solids suspended are properties that are directly related to the operation of the well. Even with the most modern drilling apparatus at disposal, if the properties of the fluid are not adequate, it can harm the entire operation. Thus, this work has proposed and constructed an automated system to remotely measure in real time the physicochemical properties of drilling fluids. The results has shown that it is possible to perform such measurements in such fluids, validated by the direct comparison between real time data and data acquired in standard bench devices. The system built has mobility, automatic control of operational variables, remote access to all information and is capable to determine in real time apparent viscosity, density, electrical stability, electrical conductivity, concentration of water in oil and concentration and size distribution of solids suspended. The system was tested in laboratory environment and it is ready to proceed to field trials.