Cementing High Pressure Formations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Cementing deep high pressure and high temperature (HPHT) gas wells has always been a challenge. Conventional heavy weight cement systems which have been used in the past have often had to sacrifice the set cement mechanical properties such as compressive strength, permeability, and porosity, to provide a slurry design which is stable, mixable and pumpable. Utilizing an optimized High Density High Performance Slurry (HDHPS) the challenge has been successfully overcome for the HPHT in the Ghawar Reservoir in the Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia. The concept of the particle size distribution was applied to provide a cost effective solution to cementing of these HPHT wells.