Evaluation of the performance of local cement for oil well cementing operations in Algeria

Mehena OUALIT, Amar IREKTI, Brahim HAMI

Abstract


The cementing of oil wells is done using special cement called ‘’class G cement’’, whose properties should meet the requirements of the American Petroleum Institute (API). Algeria, which ranks high among the oil and gas producing countries, has recently begun production of petroleum cement. The aim of this work is to characterize and evaluate the performance of a locally manufactured cement sample intended for oil and gas well cementing operations in Algeria. In this paper, significant properties (thickening time, compressive strength and free water) as well as the rheological behavior of the cement slurry under specific conditions have been experimentally examined. Apart from the initial consistency, which could be resolved by incorporating additives, the results indicated that the locally produced cement meets the requirements of the API standards and can therefore be used for cementing oil and gas wells.

Keywords


Petroleum cement; Slurry; Evaluation; Cementing operations; Rheology tests;

Full Text:

PDF

References


- American Petroleum Institute, Specification for Materials and Testing for Well Cements. fifth edition, Washington, D.C., American Petroleum Institute, API Spec. 10, 1990.

- F.M. Lea,The chemistry of cement and concrete. Edward Arnold, London, 1970.

- A. Saasen, J.O. Haugom, E. Johansen, The effect of gypsum and anhydrite on rheological properties of cement slurries. Ann. T. Nord. Rheol. Soc. 2(1994) 85-87.

- E.K. Bett, Geothermal well cementing, materials and placement techniques. United Nation University, Geothermal Training Programme, Report 10, 2010, pp. 99-130.

- O.F. Joel, Tapping the untapped wealth in our backyard: Pathway to local content development. Inaugural Lecture Series No. 104, University of Portharcourt, Nigeria, 2013, pp. 29-30.

- G. DiLullo, A. Gino, A sound alternative for oil well cementing. Offshore South East Asia 10th Conference and Exhibition World Trade Centre, Technical Paper No. 94021. Singapore, 1994, pp.1-7.

- J. Zhang, E.A. Weissinger, S. Peethamparan, G.W. Scherer, Early hydration and setting of oil well cement. Cement Concrete Res. 40(7) (2010) 1023-1033. doi:10.1016/j.cemconres.2010.03.014

- A.B. Sauki, S. Irawan, Effects of pressure and temperature on well cement degradation by supercritical CO2. Int. J. Eng. Tech. 10(4) (2010) 47-55.

- Anon. American Petroleum Institute (API): Recommended Practice 10B for Testing Well Cements. American Petroleum Institute. Washington D. C., USA, 1997.

- Anon. American National Standard Institute/American Petroleum Institute (ANSI/API) Specification 10A for Cements and Materials for Well Cementing. API Publication Services, Washington DC., USA, 2013.

- B. Alp, S. Akin, Utilization of supplementary cementitious materials in geothermal well cementing. In: Proceedings of Thirty-Eighth Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering. Stanford University, Stanford, California, 2013, pp. 1-7.

- K.K. Salam, A.O. Arinkoola, B. Ajagbe, O. Sanni, Evaluation of thickening time of oil field class G cement slurry at high temperature and pressure using experimental design. Int. J. Eng. Sci. 2(8) (2013) 361-367.

- G. Abbas, S. Irawan, S. Kumar, R.K. Memon, S.A. Khalwar, Characteristics of oil well cement slurry-using hydroxypropylmethylcellulose. J. Appl. Sci. 14(11) (2014) 1154–1160. doi:10.3923/jas.2014.1154.1160

- C.E. Bannister, Rheological evaluation of cement slurries: Methods and models. Society of Petroleum Engineers Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition. SPE 9284. Dallas, Texas, 1980, pp. 1-16. doi:10.2118/9284-MS

- O.F. Joel, The secondary effects of lignosulfonate cement retarder on cement slurry properties. ARPN J. Eng. Appl. Sci. 4(9) (2009) 1-7.

- E.B. Nelson, J.F. Baret, M. Michaux, Cement additives and mechanism of action. In: Well Cementing. Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam,Ed. E.B. Nelson, 1990, pp. 3-37.

- A. Shahriar, Investigation on rheology of oil well cement slurries. PhD Thesis. University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada, 2011.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.




Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

ISSN 2170-127X

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://revue.ummto.dz.