Location

Permian Basin, United States, North America, Onshore

Summary

An operator in the Permian Basin deployed EcoShield™

geopolymer cement-free system as an alternative to

traditional portland-cement-based slurries in more than

100 intermediate sections.

Objective

An operator in the Permian Basin wanted to evaluate EcoShield geopolymer cement-free

system as alternative to standard cement for a primary cementing job in the Permian

Case Study

An operator in the Permian Basin uses geopolymer cement-free system in place of standard cement

Published: 07/09/2024

https://www.slb.com/products-and-services/innovating-in-oil-and-gas/well-construction/well-cementing/ecoshield-system https://www.slb.com/

Basin.

Solution

The evaluation of EcoShield system as an alternative to conventional cement-based

systems for constructing oil wells included four critical phases: development of

a repeatable slurry design in the lab, demonstration of oilfield equipment compatibility,

evaluation for deployment in the field, and postjob evaluation. The laboratory work

included an extensive product development and experimentation with various chemistries

to obtain a slurry matching the performance of conventional cement-based designs. Trials

verified mixability and pumpability using standard oilfield equipment and ensured that

field-mixed slurry properties aligned with the slurry mixed in the lab. Next, EcoShield.

system designs scaled up to match job volumes were mixed and pumped at the wellsite

using conventional field equipment and following standard operational procedures. During

postjob evaluation, pressure match and cement bond logs validated the placement and

quality of bond.

Comparison of predicted design pressures vs. actual acquired pressures for an EcoShield system job.

Results

EcoShield system fit into the oilfield cementing workflow without major changes to the job

design process, including lab testing and job simulation using cementing software, onsite

execution, and postjob evaluation. CEMENTICS™ zonal isolation software was used for

cement job design and postjob pressure match to calibrate the simulated versus the

recorded pressure data. Wireline cement bond logs showed that the presence of

EcoShield system was comparable with that of conventional cements on similar wells.

Results indicate that EcoShield system is an effective alternative to the traditional portland

cement-based slurries. The  system can be implemented for primary cementing

applications using existing infrastructure for conventional cementing with portland

cements.

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https://www.slb.com/products-and-services/innovating-in-oil-and-gas/well-construction/well-cementing/cement-software/cementics-zonal-isolation-software