Part 3: Combating clays in the field
Following on from Clay and Luke’s previous blogs, we will be looking at clay samples out of the ground, and how to design a system to combat clays while optimising your drilling operations.
How to combat clays:
1. Make up water
First we need to make sure our make up water is treated. At Blick, we prefer to use Soda Ash to treat make up water; allowing the PH to rise, clean the water of calcium, and reduce hardness.
2. What products to use?
As seen in Part 2, a great mix is by using a proven system in clays with the ability to add and remove products while analysing soil samples
As we see in the video above at 00:05, we are using Polyplus, Ringfree, Kla Gard, Duo-Vis & Platinum Rod Ease
This is a great chemical mix of drilling fluids that perform a function to combat clays, allowing you to drill without mud balls, sticky clays on tooling, or clay blockages from not breaking the clays down
3. Real time analysis
A great way to make sure the mix is working for your ground conditions, is to examine the samples/cuttings in real time
As we see in the video above at 00:29, we are looking at the samples out of the ground, and based on this we can see how the fluid balance is working downhole. This allows us to add, or even in some instances remove, the amount of drilling fluid in the mix. ie: If we need to remove more cuttings, we can increase the Duo-Vis to clean the hole
Rheology is another great test to run on your fluid, to make sure we have a good baseline healthy drilling fluid
You might ask why Blick?
Blick has been a supplier to the drilling industry in Australasia for 50 years. Blick and MI SWACO work as a partnership - for water based drilling fluids across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Blick and MI SWACO focus on helping you; to design the best solution to fit your circumstances, and we have the people, and ability, to help you deliver on site.
What makes MI SWACO products different is that they are highly concentrated. By simply adding 1-2L per m3 of Kla-Gard or Ringfree, it can make a big difference to your overall drilling performance.
If you would like to know more, or put us to the test, let us design a fluid system to meet your specific requirements. Our Australia team is available on +61 3 9068 5688 (Melbourne) or +61 8 6271 3575 (Perth) and New Zealand on +64 7 849 2366.
