Investigation of chemically bonded phosphate ceramics/cements and applicability of magnesium potassium phosphate cements as wellbore sealants in the oil & gas industry

• Main Author: Barut, Kahraman
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The University of Texas at Austin 2018
• Subjects: Chemically bonded phosphate cements; Magnesium potassium phosphate cements; Well cementing; Arctic; permafrost
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.26153/tsw/1439; https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/74319

Cementing jobs especially in arctic regions and/or geothermal fields in the oil and gas industry pose significant challenges and demand critical mechanical properties on cements. Researchers propose that chemically bonded phosphate ceramics/cements (CBPC) can successfully be used as wellbore sealants where conventional Portland cement systems fail to meet desired properties. Chemically bonded phosphate cements can be described as rapid setting cements, which achieve the hardness and the durability of conventional cements and ceramics. Magnesium potassium phosphate cements (MKPC) are the most developed materials in the family of chemically bonded phosphate cements. They are formed at ambient temperatures by chemical reactions between dead burned magnesium oxide (MgO) and potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KH₂PO₄). In general, they exhibit superior mechanical properties than Portland cement systems, and they have successfully found applications in various fields where the benefits outweigh the costs such as radioactive/hazardous waste encapsulation, biomedical/clinical treatments, and civil engineering structural materials. In the literature, only a few MKPC formulations have been proposed as wellbore sealants for permafrost wells by simulating the arctic conditions. In this thesis, an investigation of the applicability of chemically bonded phosphate ceramics/cements in the oil and gas industry has been conducted with a primary focus on magnesium potassium phosphate cements (MKPC). Furthermore, new MKPC formulations in compliance with American Petroleum Institute (API) standards with sufficiently long thickening time (pumping time) and enough compressive strengths have been achieved at 72 ⁰F temperature and at atmospheric pressure conditions by this study