Tannic Acid/Polyvinyl Alcohol as a Wellbore Strengthener for Water-Based Drilling Fluid in Natural Gas Hydrate Reservoir

In South China Sea, the natural gas hydrates are usually reserved in argillaceous siltstones. These argillaceous siltstones are weakly cemented and incorporated with the solid hydrates. During the drilling process, the natural gas hydrates may decompose unexpectedly, resulting in the wellbore collapse. To improve the stability of the wellbore, this study develops a wellbore strengthener for water-based drilling fluids used in argillaceous siltstones. Tannic acid/polyvinyl (TA/PVA) alcohol has been adopted for preparing the wellbore stabilizer. A series of experiments have been conducted to investigate the effects of newly developed wellbore strengthener on the mechanical properties of the argillaceous siltstones as well as its mechanisms on the wellbore stability. The experimental results show that the wellbore strengthener developed in this study can significantly improve the compressive strengths of the argillaceous siltstone cores. The AFM characterizations indicate that the adhesion force between the silica (the major compound in argillaceous siltstones) microspheres and the wellbore strengthener can reach up to 2138 nN. Moreover, the SEM images visually show good cementation of the argillaceous siltstones after being treated by the wellbore strengthener. In addition, the wellbore strengthener can also assist in reducing the fluid losses of water-based drilling fluids. It is hopeful that the wellbore strengthener provided in this study help the development of underwater natural gas hydrates.