Copyright 2006, Society of Petroleum Engineers

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Abstract
This article presents the stability research of latex tenacity
cement slurry, develops the BCT series stabilizer and studies
the performance of the slurry and the set cement. Due to the
slurry performance study, it is found the latex material can be
evenly distributed in the slurry, which can form a film to bond
free water and micro particle, reduce fluid loss and prevent gas
migration. Adding other additives to this system, the slurry
shows better performance with lower fluid loss, better
rheological behavior and adjusting thickening time. Due to the
set cement performance study, it is found the latex particle can
evenly fill in the fine gap of C-S-H gel. It assembles and forms
a film to cover the CSH surface, which can decrease the set
cement elasticity coefficient and permeability, improve its
impact resistance and anticorrosive properties. Moreover, the
application of this latex tenacity cement slurry system is
introduced in this article.
Introduction
In oil exploration and production cementing is an important
procedure of drilling. The cementing quality directly affects
the recovery efficiency and lifetime of oil and gas well, which
have attracted more attention. Excellent cement slurry system
is essential to cementing improvement.
Latex slurry, referring to the slurry with some latex is a
good cementing slurry, which has many advantages such as
low fluid loss, anti-gas migration and good rheological
property, meanwhile its set cement also has performances such
as high compressive strength, good tenacity and anti-
corrosion. Styrene-butadiene latex (SBL) system is a main
embodiment product.
[1]
The Performance of Latex Slurry
Latex Stability
Due to the emulsification of emulsifiers, the latex particles
evenly distribute in a latex solution with a thermodynamic
metastable condition. When effected by polar ions, vigorous
mechanic agitation and large temperature fluctuation, its stable
structure will be destroyed. The latex particles will aggregate
and flocculation happens. In latex slurry, the mixing medium
is a slurry. The multivalent cations as Calcium ion,
magnesium ion and aluminium ion dissolving out of a slurry,
together with other polar groups of the slurry additives, can
break the chemical stability of a slurry. The shearing force
during the mixing and pumping process presents challenge on
the mechanic stability of a latex, meanwhile, the low storage
temperature and high well temperature also call for high
thermodynamic stability for a latex
.[2]

To increase the latex stability, it is necessary to design its
particle structure. By introducing strong hydrophilic carboxyl
groups to distribute on the latex particle surface, the CSBL
latex shows higher chemical stability than that using physical
absorption emulsifier. By adjusting the emulsifier
concentration and its radio to monomer, controlling latex
particles size and their distribution, the latex emulsion, which
has soft core and hard shell structure, can be prepared to
improve its impact resistance and temperature tolerance. A
special Emulsifier BCT-830L, which matches with carboxylic
styrene butadiene latex, can shield cement high valence ions
influence, further improves the latex stability and is used to
prepare the product BCT-800L, which contains the above
emulsifier and the latex.
The thickening tests at 40*0.1MPa and 100*60MPa
for the slurries formulated with CSBL and with BCT-800L are
performed respectively to determine the latex stability in a
slurry. The test results are shown in table1. The results show
that slurry with a low co ntent CSBL will flocculate at high
temperature. If increasing CSBL content, the slurry shows
unstable and flocculates at atmosphere pressure thickening
test. The slurry with BCT-800L containing the special
emulsifier, can endure high temperature, high pressure and
mechanic agitation, showing good stability. Moreover, BCT-
800L concentration increasing doesnt influence the stability
of a slurry.
Fluid Loss control and Rheological property
The effects of latex BCT-800L concentration on slurry fluid
loss are shown in Fig. 1. The results show that fluid loss
gradually lowers down with latex concentration increasing.
When latex concentration reaches 10%(BWOC), the API fluid
loss is well controlled less than 100mL . If latex concentration
reaches to more than 15%(BWOC), the fluid loss can be
controlled within 50mL. With the help of other fluid loss
additives at a small quantity, API fluid loss can be controlled
within 30 mL.
The effects of a latex on fluid loss control work through
the whole fluid loss process. The latex grains, much smaller
than cement particles have the function of particle-size
SPE 104434
Application and Research of Latex Tenacity Cement Slurry System
Sun Fuquan, Lv Guangming, SPE, and Jin Jianzhou, Research Inst. of Engineering Technology of CNPC
2 SPE 104434
distribution with cement, where the small particles fill in the
space among the large particles to form compact and
impermeable cake under high pressure, which contributes to a
low fluid loss. On the other hand with the progress of the fluid
loss the latex grains aggregate on the interface rapidly, and
finally form a impermeable polymer film, which jams and
further prevents fluid loss.
The rheology describes the characteristics of fluidity and
transmutation of a slurry. Improving rheology can meliorate
the relative motion of the cement particles as well as the
stability and the displacement of a slurry. For the latex slurry
the - diagrams at 60 and 80are shown in Fig.2.
According to API specification the rheological parameters
such as plastic viscosity, yield shear stress of Bingham
equation can be determined (see table 2). Due to the low
viscosity and feasible yield, the slurries can easily feature
turbulent flow, which contributes to the efficiency of the
displacement. Meanwhile, the latex slurry density variation
from top to bottom in the BP settling test is less than
0.03g/cm3, showing good stability.
The latex contribution to slurry rheology is that latex
particles wrapped by the emulsifier form micella, which
evenly distributes in the slurry. Because micelles size
(0.05~0.5um) is much smaller than cement particles size
(generally 20~50um), they are filled among cement particles
and have the "ball bearing" effect. On other hand the latex
stabilizer can mitigate the electrostatic absorption between
cement particles, which help disperse cement.
Anti-migration
The anti-migration of the latex slurry is evaluated using UCA
(ultra acoustic analysis), Fig.3 gives the graph showing the
static gel strength development of a latex slurry. From the
experiment we know the transition time of the gel strength
development is only 15min, which features excellent anti-
migration by reducing the possibility of gas-invasion because
of the failure of transmission of pressure in the annulus.
Research results indicate that gas migration often takes place
between 48~240Pa of SGS after displacement. Obviously the
shorter is the time of SGS from 48Pa to 240Pa, the fewer the
chance of gas migration. When the static gel strength is less
than 48Pa, the pressure of the fluid column can be freely
transmitted to the formation, whereby the weight loss as well
as gas migration can be avoided ,with the hydration of cement
, the static gel strength will be more than 240Pa, where the C-
S-H structure forms to prevent gas-migration.
In addition, the latex slurry has some function of anti-gas
invasion itself. Generally, when gas invasion occurred, the
latex grains aggregate and form a impervious film with some
strength to prevent gas migration into the slurry as well as up
through the annulus. With a little invasive gases, the large
quantity of stabilizers (surfactants) reduce the surface tension
of the slurry and the invasive gases soon will be entrapped and
not allowed up migration to forming gas migration channel.
With the strength development, the latex grains fill in the
space among the cement particles to mitigate the fission
formation due to cement hydration, meanwhile, the
permeability reduced with less gas channels.
The mechanical characteristics and anti-corrosion
ability
The conventional slurry and the latex slurry are cured at the
same condition to measure the properties of the set cement
such as compressive strength, elastic modulus, flexural
strength and dilatability etc, the result shown in table 3. The
experiments indicate that the compressive strength of a latex
cement slightly reduces but still meets the need of cementing,
less degradation of the long period compressive strength and
increased ductility. The elastic modulus reduces with the
increasing of latex, and can lower about 30% compared with
conventional slurry. The compressive strength slightly
increases with the latex added, alternatively, latex has no
strong effect on the compressive strength of a slurry. The
shrinkage of the set cement reduces with the latex added.
In lab, the latex set cements and conventional set cements
are put into a acidic solution of 0.1M to test the corrosion by
measuring the weight loss at different time. With the
increasing of latex, the weight losses of the set cements are
mitigated, the ability of anti-corrosion reinforced.
The even dispersed latex in a slurry modifies the
characteristics of a slurry by affecting the cement hydration. In
cement hydration, a cement- latex complex structure forms in
three steps. First, after mixture with cement, the latex grains
evenly disperse in the slurry, with the cement hydration the
grains are partly adsorbed on the surface of the hydrate.
Second, with the hydration and gel structure development, the
grains of latex are entrapped in the space of capillary, when
further hydration, with the water in capillary gradually
reducing, the grains aggregate on the surface of the hydrate to
form concessive film, meanwhile, the other latex grains also
fill in the space of hydrate. Third, with the progression of
hydration, more water consumed, the aggregated grain on the
surface of hydrate form more film and interlace the hydrate to
lead to the formation of hydrate-polymer complex net
structure.
[3]
The latex forms interlaces in the fission of cement
hydrate to withdraw the development of the fissions, which
increases the ductility of a set cement as well as the ability of
impact resistance, meanwhile reducing the permeability as
shown in table 4 and shrinkage, resulting in the improved anti-
corrosion ability.
[2]
The SEM of the latex set cement and
conventional set cement are shown in Fig4.
The composite characteristics
Before formulating a slurry with latex, the matched stabilizers
should be added in the plain latex. Using the latex with the
concentration of 5%~20% and combined with other suitable
additives, the slurry properties such as fluid loss controlling,
rheological property, compressive strength and ductility can
be tailored to meet the need of various cementing. The
composite characteristics of the latex slurry are shown in table
5, the typical consistency graph shown as Fig.5.
From the table 5 we can know that the latex slurry has
many advantages such as low fluid loss, good rheology,
adjustable thickening time, high compressive strength and
some ductility etc.. It is very suitable for the cementing of slim
hole, side tracking and multilateral drilling.
Oilfield application
The latex slurry has been used in Dagang , Liaohe ,J iangsu
,J ilin and Offshore oilfield etc to cement over 20 wells for
side-tracked well, deep gas well, multi-lateral well .It has
SPE 104434 3
effectively prevented the gas migration with high qualified
cementing.
Case1: the application in side tracked well in J iangsu oilfield
Sha 30-7 well , located in Gaoyou north anticline Shanian
structure, is a development well ,where the sidetracked drilling
begin at 600m deep with the decline angle 17.28and TVD
about 2595.0m. The latex slurry was used to cement
production casing about 2595~1855m, BHCT 70, and the
slurry formulation as follows:
Nanjing class G cement+15% latex BCT800L+1.5%fluid
loss control additive BXF-200L+0.5%dispersant CF40S+0.4%
defoemer D50+28%fresh water.
Operation: pump 4m
3
water spacer with 10% special
emulsifier BCT-830, spacer annulus high about 200m, then
pump 7m3 latex slurry with the density of 1.83~1.88g/cm
3
,
displaced with fresh water, well log after 36hr and high
qualified rate of 98%
Case 2: the application in multi-lateral drilling in Liaohe
oilfield
Liaohe J in 612-22-new22 is a multi-lateral well with designed
TVD 1544m, casing setting 1540m deep. The latex slurry was
used to cement 101.6mm with the fill-up of 1115m. the BHC
is about 45 and the drilling fluid is o/w brine water with the
density of 1.12g/cm
3
and the viscosity of 70S. The latex slurry
formulation as follows
J iahua class G cement +15%latex BCT-800L+1.0%fluid
loss control additive BXF-200L+0.5%dispersant
CF40S+1%activater BAS-1+0.4%defoamer D50+27% fresh
water
Slurry properties: thickening time at BHCT of 179 min;
zero free water; fluidity 24 cm; 16.8MPa compressive strength
in 24hr at BHCT.
Operation: pump 5m
3
water spacer with 10% the special
emulsifier BCT-830, spacer annulus high about 500m, then
pump 7m
3
latex slurry, and displace with fresh water at the
circulate rate of 0.67m/s, the low density 1.55 g/cm
3
as lead
slurry, the high density 1.88 g/cm
3
as tail slurry, average
density 1.86g/cm
3
, and high qualified cementing was obtained
Conclusion
The latex combined with suitable stabilizers can be used as
cement additive to tailor the slurry which has the functions
such as anti-migration and ductility etc..
Matched with other additives the latex slurry which has
low fluid loss, anti-migration and good rheological property
can meet the need of various cementing.
By the application of other additives and the formulation
design, the latex slurry can be tailored to meet the need of
cementing for slim hole, sidetracked hole, deep gas well and
multiple lateral well etc.
Nomenclature
0= yield shear stress, Pa
P= plastic viscosity, Pa.s
=shear stress, Pa
=shear rate, 1/s
References
1. Liu wenjian, Wang Taicong.et al.:Latex Slurry Cementing
Technology Abroad, Petrolium Drilling Technology, 1997, 25
2
2. Yan Cengtao, Zhao Xiaolong.et al.:Application of Styrene-
Butadiene Latex for Cementing in Oil-gas Field and It Particles
Design,Petrochemical Technology & Application2005, 19(5)
3. Liu Chongjian.et al.Cementing Theory and Application for Oil-
gas Well, Petroleum Industry Press., 2001,9

4 SPE 104434
Table 1Latex Slurry Stablity
Slurry Stability
Latex Content
Slurry Preparation 40*0.1MPa Thickening 100*60MPaThickening
CSBL 2 Stable Stable Flocculation
CSBL 5 Stable Flocculation
CSBL 10 Flocculation
BCT-800L 5 Stable Stable Stable
BCT-800L 10 Stable Stable Stable
BCT-800L 15 Stable Stable Stable

Fig. 1Latex Content Influence on Slurry Fluid Loss

















Table 2Characteristics of Fluidity
Temperature 3 6 100 200 300 600 Characteristics Fluidity initial consistency
60 4 5 24 45 63 115

p
=52cp

0
=2.3Pa
26cm 8BC
80 4 6 30 53 71 121

p
=50cp

0
=4.9Pa
26cm 8BC

Fig. 2Shearing stress And Shearing rate Connection











Fig. 3The Static Gel Strength Development of Latex Slurry






SPE 104434 5
Fig. 3The Static Gel Strength Development of Latex Slurry



















Table 3The Mechanical Characteristics Ability


Compress Strength
MPa No.
Latex
Content
%
Temperature

1day 2day 30day
Elastic Modulus
GPa
E
%
Expansion Ratio
%
1 0 27.0 32.4 44 11.2 0.0 0.013
2 5 24.0 32.0 38 9.8 12.5 0.034
3 10 22.8 30.2 32 8.6 23.2 0.035
4 15 19.8 27.0 32 7.6 32.1 0.041
5 20
52
18.0 26.0 30 6.8 39.3 0.052
1 0 30.0 36.0 46.9 12.2 0.0 0.019
2 5 26.0 32.8 39.6 10.4 14.8 0.048
3 10 26.0 30.4 31.5 9.6 21.3 0.052
4 15
80
22.0 29.2 31.7 8.4 31.1 0.068



Table 4Permeability Of Set Cements
No.
Content
%
Permeability@48vhr*70
10
-3
m
2
1 5 0.08
2 10 0.03
3 15 0.00

6 SPE 104434
Fig. 4SEM Of Set Cements
















Table 5Typical Performance of Latex Slurry
BHCT 50 70 80 90 120 150
Condition
P MPa 30 35 40 50 60 80
Class G 700 700 700 700 700 700
Latex 70 70 70 105 105 105
Dispersant 3 3 3 3 3 3
Fluid loss agent 7 14 14 21 24.5 28
Retarder 0 0 1 2 10 16
Water 233 226 226 184 170 160
Compose
g
Defoamer 3 3 3 3 3 3
Density g/cm
3
1.86 1.86 1.86 1.86 1.86 1.86
Thickening time min 180 170 200 240 260 300
Fluid lossml 20 15 20 18 24 50
Performanc
e
24hr compressive strengthMPa
18 20 24 24 24 24


Fig. 5Latex Slurry Thickening Graph