The Use of Low-Cost Graphite Nanomaterials to Enhance Zonal Isolation in Oil and Gas Wells

One of the key challenges encountered in cementing the casing in oil and gas wells is the failure of the cement sheaths due to low tensile strength and toughness resistance of the cement sheath. To enhance the mechanical and durability characteristics of cement sheaths, low-cost graphite nanoplatelet (GnP) employed as a nano-scale reinforcement. GnP offers many of the highly desired mechanical, physical, geometric and stability characteristics of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) at substantially reduced cost. Experimental studies were implemented to evaluate the complementary effects of low-cost graphite nanomaterials in oil and gas well cement sheaths. Experimental results highlighted the balanced gains in diverse engineering properties of cement slurry by introduction of GnP. As a nano-scale reinforcement system, GnPs were found to significantly control the crack propagation and improvement in mechanical attributes of Zonal Isolation. The planar geometry of GnPs makes them to be effective in improvement of durability characteristics of cementitious paste.