Paper: A Review Of The Use of Fluid Loss Additives In cementing Operations In The Permian Basin

The use of fluid loss additives in cementing is by no means a new idea. The industry utilized bentonite early on in cementing compositions to help control water loss to permeable formations. One of the first organic fluid loss additives was carboxymethyl hydroxyethyl cellulose. Polymer-type It was used when introduced in primary cementing. Shortly thereafter the use of fluid loss additives was extended to squeeze cementing.2 From that time, about 1961 to the middle 197Os, fluid loss additive compositions were changed to be able to handle varying downhole and surface conditions. In the mid-1970s a new concept, fluid loss additives for high-water-containing cement, was introduced. Up to this time, fluid loss additives (organic) were seldom placed in the high-water-containing lead slurries but mainly in the tail-in slurries being placed across pay zones. From the mid-1970s to the present, continued improvement in fluid loss additives has been made as well as advances in dynamic testing of fluid loss additives.3 There is still room for improvement in the area of fluid loss additives themselves because they need to be able to perform under all types of conditions. What fluid loss additives need to be able to handle is any combination of permeability, temperature, pressure, differential pressure, and slurry composition, yet still give any degree of fluid loss control predictably and economically. Obviously, this is quite an assignment and that is why each service company has several different fluid loss additives. It also stands to reason that fluid loss additives are expensive since they are polymers. It is, in fact, not uncommon for fluid loss additives to cost as much per sack of cement as'the cement itself. Thus, fluid loss additives should be used with common sense, and hopefully, the following discussion will tie together several aspects of fluid loss control into one comprehensive package and give insights into when to use fluid loss additives, how much to use, and what type to use. Most of the information in this paper is not new, but it has not been covered in one place and especially with a bias towards the Permian Basin.