Customization of Aqueous Based Muds for Unconventional Shale Reservoirs

Abstract

Drilling activity has radically increased in unconventional shale gas reservoirs. Non-aqueous based fluid (NAF) is frequently chosen as drilling fluids in these shale plays. While NAFs can bring benefits such as shale stabilization, lubricity, and contamination tolerance, environmental concerns and related costs are a problem. These difficulties let the operators to search for different fluid systems such as water-based muds (WBM).