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Elkem specialty and microsilica products for oilwell cementing

Our portfolio of specialty oilfield cement additives achieve the desirable combination of high performance, reliability and cost-effectiveness, while also being environmentally safe.

Elkem oilfield cementing materials: improved well integrity

microsilica in microscope
Microsilica

Oilfield cementing involves the placement of a solid and impermeable setting material that supports and isolates the different well zones, ensuring well-integrity. Petroleum operators and their service providers use a wide array of cementing chemical additives to ensure safe and reliable cement placement across the wellbore and long-term zonal isolation. Cement must also provide support for casing/liner strings and resist deformation of surrounding areas protecting metal tubulars from corrosive gases and brines, thus preventing future collapse. During cement placement in the well, special fluids such as spacers are used to prevent downhole contamination. Cement slurries may also require accelerator or retarder additives to control the pumpability of cement, known as thickening time. Extenders or weighting agents are added to the cement blend to tailor the density of the job in each well. Other oilfield chemicals, such as dispersants, high-performance fluid loss additives or anti-gas migration prevention products or defoamers can also be added to tune the rheological slurry properties of the cement and control the fluid-loss against the potentially permeable rock formation. A properly designed cement slurry and cement operation is key to the lifespan of the well and its performance over time, complying with safety and environmental standards.

Ensuring results in oilfield cementing operations

The Elkem portfolio includes a comprehensive range of high-performance, reliable, cost-effective and environmentally safe – often PLONOR listed – specialty oilfield cement additives. This includes extenders, defoamers, fluid-loss control, gas-migration and proprietary weighting agents, as well as Microsilica-based additives to ensure that cement or resins bond to the casings and formations and provide adequate mechanical properties.​

 

See below for an overview of our portfolio.

Anti gas migration

MICROBLOCK® is a slurrified multifunction­al product composed of microsilica with high surface area and specially processed and with quality-controlled particle size distribution (PSD). The microsilica will react with the cal­cium hydroxide given off by cement hydration and form more of the calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) crystal structure that binds cement, increasing the compressive strength of the set cement, and lowering the slurry permeability, preventing gas bubbles from percolating.

Microlatex has been proved to be an effective additive to control gas migration during the cement setting transition state. In addition to blocking gas migration, it is used as a general fluid loss additive in cement slurries.

ML-31 is a liquid latex additive that is highly recommended to lower the equivalent circu­lating density (ECD) and as a fluid loss control additive in cement slurries with excellent per­formance.

FL-73 is a custom engineered fluid loss con­trol additive in free-flowing polymer powder form, that provides with superior rheological properties for all cementing applications.

Elkem LS-80 is a proprietary blend specifical­ly developed to enhance Microlatex in higher temperatures and in the presence of salt.

Retarders

MR-21 and MR 12 are cement retarders used in medium temperature ranges for oilfield ce­menting operations, whereas MR-21L is the liq­uid version of MR 21 cement retarder.

MR-32 is a high temperature retarder used in bottom hole circulating temperatures up to 350 °F (176.6 °C), whereas MR-32L is the liquid ver­sion of this cement retarder.

MR-5 designed to use when the bottom hole circulating temperature of the well is between 120 °F and 210 °F (48.8 °C - 98.8 °C) . MR-5 is compatible with fresh and salt slurries and most of the cement additives. It is recommend­ed with all API oil well cements.

MR-104 is a synthetic high temperature retard­er developed to be effective over a wide range of bottom hole circulating temperatures, from 100 °C - 180 °C (212 °F - 356 °F). It displays a rapid transition time and excellent compatibility with other oil-well cementing additives.

Fluid loss additives

FL-10 is used in medium to low density cement slurries. The product is preferred in fresh water but can also be applied to sea water-based slurries. FL-10 is com­patible with most cement products.

FL-40 has excellent salt compatibility attributes and remains effective in a wide range of cement slurries prepared with fresh water, salt water and seawater and it is effective in all API cement classes. FL-40 is also fully compatible with a wide range of other chemical additives typically used in the formulation of oilfield ce­ments.

FL-73 is a custom engineered fluid loss control additive in free-flowing poly­mer powder form, that provides with superior rheological properties for all ce­menting applications. FL-73 has excellent water solubility attributes and can be added directly to the mix water whilst circulating through the mixer or can be dry blended with the cement.

Bond improvement agents

MICROLITE® P is a dry amorphous, spherical microsilica. It is pozzolanic and creates extra binder phases resulting in lower set-cement permeability. MICROLITE® P acts as an ex­tender, lowering the cement slurry density and enhances the compressive strength. It provides important properties as zero free water, low fluid loss, low viscosity, early strength devel­opment, high compressive strength, improved bonding, stable cement slurry and corrosion re­sistance to the cementing fluids. Proven effec­tive in CO2 wells.

MICROLITE® L is a slurry of amorphous, spher­ical microsilica with high surface area. MICROLITE® L enhances fluid loss control, by reducing the permeability of the initial cement filter cake

MICROBLOCK® is a slurrified/liquid multifunc­tional product composed of microsilica with high surface area and specially processed and with quality controlled particle size distribution (PSD).

MICROBLOCK® contains SiO2, which reacts with Ca(OH)2 released from cement hydration and increases the overall strength.

MICROBLOCK® is an efficient filler/extender that fills the voids between cement grains.

Dispersants

MD-65 reduces the friction pressure drop of given slurry allowing a turbulent flow during pumping operations. This result in an improved cement placement which yields perfect zonal isolation across the zone of interest. It enhanc­es the control of fluid loss. It aids the cement retarders in cement slurries.

MD-65L is the liquid version of MD-65. The product is a dispersant used to improve the rheological properties of cement slurries. The main chemical component of MD- 65L is naphthalene sulphonate condensate.

MD-67 is a non-retarding dispersant used to improve the rheological properties of cement slurries with or without salt and latex additives for the control of gas migration.

Antifoam and defoamers

MD-10 is a silicone emulsion grade based on Elkem new generation high efficient silicone compound for the prevention, control and elim­ination of foam in aqueous systems.

MD-14 is designed for use as an defoamer agent for cement mixtures to help prevent foaming and air entertainment caused by additives such as retarders, fluid loss agents, and latex. No ef­fect on cement properties has been found with MD-14 and it is compatible with all API classes of cement all additives.

MD-17 is a wide range temperature stable sil­icon-free defoamer. MD-17 is designed for use as a defoamer agent for cement mixtures, to help eliminating foam­ing and air entertainment caused by additives such as retarders and fluid loss agents

Specialty products

CXP-2 is an expanding additive developed pri­marily to eliminate shrinkage during the cement hydration. The product provides excellent bonding and help to control micro channels, which give a pathway for inter zonal communication hence contributes to better zonal isolation.

Microfibers are high performance monofilament fibers used to control losses and to prevent cracks in the set cement matrix.

Elkem MFC-12 Microfine Cement is a grey, free flowing, cementitious material exhibiting excel­lent injection properties, high early compressive strength development and improved resistance to CO2 attacks.

Cement extenders

Cenospheres are hollow spheres that are added to the cement slurry to reduce the slurry density to low levels where water in combination with conventional extenders fail to achieve the required properties. The high-performance hollow glass microspheres, an ultra-light inorganic non-metallic powder with hollow “ball-bearing” shapes, have been developed into a new type of high-performance lightweight material. S-Lite 40 has a density of 0.40 g/cc and a crush strength of 4,000 psi. S-Lite 40 can be used as filler in well cementing to achieve ultra-lightweight slurry with a density down to 7.00 ppg. (0.84 SG)

S-Lite 46 has a density of 0.46 g/cm³ and a crush strength of 6,000 psi. The D50 of S-Lite 46 is 36 micron. The unique spherical shape of S-lite 46 offers a number of important benefits, including higher filler loading, lower viscosity, improved flow and reduced shrinkage.

S-Lite 60 has a density of 0.60 g/cc and a crush strength of 10,000 psi. The D50 of S-Lite 60 is 30 micron.

FA-45 is an economical solution to reduce cement slurry density with lower im­pact to final compressive strength compared to other low-cost extenders.

ST-3 is sodium metasilicate used as an extender to produce economical, low density cement slurry.

ST-3 is sodium metasilicate used as an extender to produce economical, low density cement slurry.

Spacer and chemical wash

CW-122 is designed to sweep in turbulent flow the drilling fluid ahead and disperse residual drilling fluid left in contact with the walls of the pipe and formation.

SFT-50 is a non-ionic surfactant used to lower surface tension. Surfactants are used in spac­ers as a “detergent”, improving drilling fluids re­moval efficiency / wettability.

NEA-18 is commonly used as a highly efficient surfactant in the cement spacer system to pro­vide superior cleaning performance for the oil-based, synthetic-based, or water-based drilling fluids over a broad temperature gradients.

CSP-500 is a cement spacer designed for sep­arating cement slurries and water-based drilling muds. It also designed to be compatible with both fluids. Its main advantage is the excellent fluid loss control at low and high temperatures.

SFT-20 is a surfactant used in spacer design to optimize the fluid properties for the most effi­cent wellbore displacement cleanout in a ce­menting job.

Silica to prevent strength retrogression

SL-10 is high-purity crystalline silica with a par­ticle size distribution below 10 microns. SL-10 is commonly used in oil well cementing to design high performance lightweight cement blends.

SF-75 (also known as Silica Flour) is a solid ad­ditive, commonly blended with the cement that helps the set cement maintain is low permeabil­ity and compressive strength properties in high temperature environments. Support against strength retrogression is needed where static temperatures exceed 230 °F (110 °C).

Weighting agents

MICROMAX® is a high-performance weighting agent for spacer and cementing fluids. It is a manganese tetraoxide (Mn3O4) based materi­al. MICROMAX® is not milled. MICROMAX® maintains a consistency in both PSD and almost perfect sphericity. It is both the size and shape which contributes to its unique properties. Unlike other weighting agents like barite which are milled and thus have angular morpholo­gy and wide PSD, MICROMAX® has spheri­cal morphology and is produced in its finished form.

MICROMAX® is offered in two versions. The MICROMAX® FF is an easy-flowing processed powder that answers some limits inherent to the classic MICROMAX®. A main challenge associated with cementing narrow margin wells includes ECD manage­ment and resulting losses to the formation. The versatile applications of MICROMAX® FF in­clude deepwater, HPHT, coil-tubing operations, TTRD, and CT cementing, or any other difficult condition.

 

It offers excellent dispersion especially for high density applications. It is particularly fit to be used in cement systems with flexible com­ponents or fibers, and tailored to answer well stresses.

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