Delaminated iron ore (hematite-barite) as alternative weighting agent to barite in petroleum drilling fluids engineering operations and mechanism study

Abstract Strenuous attempts for replacing barite by novel competitor ores with titanic reserves as alternative weighting materials to overcome formation pressure problems were made owing to the big cost of barite-based drilling fluids. This approach is concerned with studying the effect of firstly used delaminated iron ore (hematite-barite), which found with tremendous reserves as an unprecedented weighting material in drilling fluids. Several drilling mud samples were prepared and loaded with barite and the delaminated iron ore (DIO) to obtain the same mud density range (9.6–18.7 lb/gal) against applied mud density of 8.6 lb/gal for un-weighted blank drilling mud. The rheological characteristics of the water-based mud sample treated with DIO (WMSDIO) were examined and displayed a superb alternative rheological behavior to barite-weighted mud. Mud cake thickness and fluid loss volume were investigated. The observed results affirmed that the DIO has a novel potency as weighting material in drilling fluids engineering operations.