Synthetic Clay Application to Reduce the Segregation of Barite-Based Oil-Well Cement

In the oil and gas industry, cement segregation is a significant concern that can have disastrous consequences, such as the failure of cement. The change of hardened cement’s properties is observed, resulting in a decrease in its strength and an increase in its permeability. Therefore, providing some solutions to prevent this is crucial. The objective of this study is to assess the efficacy of synthetic clay in mitigating the problem of segregation in cement having barite. Six concentrations of synthetic clay were used to prepare six heavy-weighted cement samples with a high density of 18 lb/gal using the barite weighting material. The approaches of density distribution and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) were employed to characterize the heterogeneity in the hardened cement samples with the aim of identifying the potential of cement segregation. Then, the optimum concentration of the synthetic clay was selected and its effects on the rheological, strength, petrophysical, and elastic properties were evaluated and compared with the properties of the base cement (without synthetic clay). The results showed that 0.4% by weight of cement (BWOC) synthetic clay was the optimum concentration, which yielded the minimum cement segregation as represented by a 61% reduction in the density variation compared to the control specimen. The results obtained from the NMR technique validated the findings of the density distribution method, indicating that the porosity distribution of the synthetic clay cement with a concentration of 0.4% BWOC exhibited uniformity across its top, middle, and bottom sections, with a slight deviation window, while the porosity distribution of the control cement specimen displayed noticeable variation. Moreover, the synthetic clay had better properties than the control cement specimen. For example, the rheological properties were improved as represented by a 22% reduction in plastic viscosity and 42 and 11% increase in the yield point and gel strength, respectively. Compared to the base cement, the compressive and tensile strength were increased by 39 and 43%. The synthetic clay decreased the permeability and porosity by 73 and 24%, respectively. The synthetic clay enhanced the elastic properties as represented by a 1.5% reduction in Young’s modulus and a 1.3% increase in Poisson’s ratio compared to the base cement sample.