Evaluation of Biosurfactants to Preflush for Offshore Wells

With the improvement of environmental protection requirements in offshore oil and gas exploration, there is a great demand to find environmentally friendly surfactants for cementing preflush fluids. In the present paper, the application potential of three biosurfactants of rhamnolipid, lipopeptide, and sophorolipid in the preflush fluid was evaluated through a series of experiments. The experiments studied the interfacial tension (IFT) of the biosurfactants, resistance to temperature, salt resistance (sodium chloride and sea salt), and the influences of the studied biosurfactants on the rheological compatibility and capabilities to convert the wettability of the formation from oil-wet to water-wet, mud cake removal efficiency, and to improve the interfacial bonding properties of the preflush fluid. The results showed that rhamnolipid, lipopeptide, and sophorolipid exhibited excellent surface activities in high-temperature and sodium chloride (NaCl) environments. When exposed to sea salt, lipopeptides lost their function due to agglomeration, while rhamnolipids and sophorolipids maintained structural stabilities and high surface activities. When rhamnolipid was mixed with sophorolipid in a ratio of 2:1 at the same concentration, the combined biosurfactant had the best surface activity among the studied surfactants. The combined biosurfactant not only had good rheological compatibility with the drilling fluid and cement slurry but also showed excellent properties in the removal of mud cake. In addition, the effect of the removal of the mud cake was verified by the gas channeling experiment. The experimental results show that the presence of mud cake can reduce the bonding strength. When rhamnolipid was mixed with sophorolipid in a ratio of 2:1 at the same concentration, the removal efficiency of mud cake was the highest, and the interfacial bonding property of the cement sheath can be improved.