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 makeup water is treated. At Blick, we prefer to use Soda Ash to treat makeup water, which allows the pH to rise, cleans the water of calcium, and reduces 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 shown in the video above at 00:05, we can utilise Swell Stop (Liquid), Clay Dissolve, Clay Control, Carry Flow and Torque Down.
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 ensure the mix works 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 Carry Flow 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 supplying the drilling industry in Australasia for 50 years. It combines local expertise with global resources, delivering fast, agile, and effective solutions. While larger competitors may have more staff, our focus and problem-solving capabilities enable us to respond faster and adapt better.
What makes Blick Fluids products different is that they are highly concentrated. Simply adding 1-2L per m3 of Clay Control or Clay Dissolve can greatly impact 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 at +61 3 9068 5688 (Melbourne) or +61 8 6271 3575 (Perth), and New Zealand at +64 7 849 2366.
