Although key shale gas plays vary considerably in terms of reservoir pressure, temperature, mineralogy, and in-situ stresses, the principal drilling-related issues are wellbore stability, shale inhibition, hole cleaning and rate of penetration. Because many of the shale reservoirs are in either environmentally sensitive or densely populated areas, stricter environmental regulations will require new types of environment-friendly water-based drilling fluids. The traditional shale inhibition method through either chemical inhibition or use of invert emulsion drilling fluid is not enough to satisfy the stricter environmental requirements.

This paper focuses on the lab techniques and the performance results of evaluating and analyzing an innovative water- based drilling fluid system containing nanoparticles as a physical shale inhibitor. The physical shale inhibition is achieved by plugging the pores and microfractures in shale with nanoparticles and thus preventing water invasion into the shale. A series of transient pressure penetration or flow-through tests, also known as shale membrane efficiency tests, were performed to evaluate water invasion rates into various shale core samples, with initial brine permeabilities varying from less than 1 nD to over 100,000 nD. Permeability reduction was used as a proxy of water invasion reduction and the effectiveness of plugging of pores and microfractures in shale by the nanoparticles. Many orders of permeability reduction were consistently observed for the drilling fluids with nanoparticles.

Pressure increases in the near-wellbore region due to water invasion during a given time also were analytically calculated using the permeabilities for various fluids which were interpreted from these transient flow-through tests. These pressure increases then were compared to illustrate the approximate impact depth of water invasion and give an indication of shale stability and shale inhibition performance of these drilling fluid systems.

Test results and pressure increase analyses showed that this new water-based drilling fluid with nanoparticles provides an entirely different type of shale inhibition by physically plugging pores and microfractures in shale and meets the strictest environmental regulations for shale gas drilling. The tests also showed that although nanoparticles alone may be effective in preventing water invasion into shale samples with no microfractures, the combination of properly formulated drilling fluid and nanoparticles of appropriate size and concentration is the key to prevent water invasion into shale gas core samples with or without microfractures.