A new family of water-based drilling fluids that contain nano-particles has been tested to evaluate its interaction with shales. It was shown in an earlier paper that nano-particles dramatically reduce the flow of water into a shale formation. In this study we have developed and tested a new family of commercially available drilling fluids that can be used to drill shales. 

Drilling shale formations with water-based fluids offers some tremendous environmental and economic advantages. To date the use of such fluids have been limited to hard shales such as the Barnett. In this paper we have developed and lab tested water-based drilling fluids that contain nano-particles that can be applied to a much broader range of shales.

Water-based drilling fluids have been formulated that incorporate nano-particles in them at a very reasonable cost. The rheology and stability of these muds were tested. A family of such fluids has been developed and tested in the lab. It is found that the muds are quite stable at elevated pressures and temperatures and offer a wide range of rheological properties. These muds also offer good lubricity and are, therefore suitable for applications in drilling the lateral section of the hole in shales. Tests were also conducted to measure the extent of invasion of water into shales when they are exposed to nano-particle based drilling fluids. The invasion into the shale was reduced by 10 to 100 times indicating that wellbore instability problems will be minimized when these muds are used.

Drilling long lateral sections in shales and tight gas reservoirs is often the largest capital cost associated with the development of these resources. Nano-particle based drilling fluids have the potential to significantly cut these drilling and disposal costs and offer significant environmental benefits.