FLOTHRU: Another SMART RDF Technology from M-I SWACO

At M-I SWACO*, we realize the importance of intelligent control in drilling and completion operations. Our technologies give you the means to take a smarter approach to production, which in the end, allows not only higher production, but greater control over your costs. SMART RDF* Technology gives you the best tools on the market to put you in control of downhole operations. FLOTHRU* is the latest addition to the M-I SWACO suite of SMART RDF Technologies — fluid systems that address formation-damage and productivityimpairment concerns. These technologies, which include both reservoir drillin fluids and breaker systems, put more finesse into drilling and cleaning up reservoir drill-in fluids by giving the engineer more control over what occurs downhole. FLOTHRU offers a dramatic improvement over the more conventional approach of pumping aggressive, and potentially damaging chemicals. M-I SWACO will continue to develop intelligent solutions for coping with formation damage and productivity impairment and will add those systems to the SMART RDF suite.

How the FLOTHRU system works

The FLOTHRU system is a water-base Reservoir Drill-In Fluid (RDF) designed with enhanced flowback capabilities that eliminate the need for a chemical cleanup treatment, while providing higher return permeability and lower flow-initiation pressures. The primary application for a FLOTHRU system is in open-hole completions where the filter cake is trapped between the formation and the completion assembly. In openhole completions where the filter cake is not confined, the FLOTHRU system still provides a major benefit: lower flowinitiation pressures at comparable return-permeability values. In the FLOTHRU system, a proprietary hydrophobic-carbonate component combines with a hydrophobic starch to control fluid loss. These materials create organophilic (oil-preferential) channels through the FLOTHRU filter cake. Their filter-cake-building characteristics provide a low-permeability barrier to water and prevent high infiltration. These same organophilic channels avoid the cohesive nature of conventional water-base RDF filter cakes and provide increased transmissibility of hydrocarbons, eliminating the need for chemical breakers.

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