High-Temperature, Salt-Resistant, and High-Strength-Controlled Consolidated Resin Slurry for Fracture Plugging during Oil and Gas Well Drilling

Summary The temperature and pressure of deep and ultradeep plugging are gradually increasing, resulting in higher requirements for the performance of plugging materials. In this study, a resin slurry plugging system that can be used to plug lost channels of fractures of different scales in the process of oil and gas exploitation was prepared, and the factors affecting the consolidation of the system under different conditions were studied. The resin slurry plugging system was initially consolidated in 2 hours and completely consolidated in 6–9 hours. It exhibited good viscosity recovery ability and excellent thixotropy characteristics of shear thinning and static thickening, which help realize strong residence and plugging in the fracture. The resin slurry plugging system prepared with 200 000 mg/L salinity water could still achieve good consolidation at 140°C, and the consolidating strength was higher than 5.0 MPa. In addition, the 7.10-MPa consolidation strength of the resin slurry plugging system with aging at 140°C for 15 days could satisfy the long-term plugging needs. Furthermore, the pressure-bearing plugging capacity and degradability of the resin slurry plugging system were investigated. The resin slurry plugging system could be fully filled in the steel wedge-shaped fractured core at 140°C, and the pressure-bearing plugging capacity was up to 13.07 MPa. The resin slurry plugging system could achieve a strong residence in the sand-filling pipe model, forming a high-strength plugging layer, and the pressure-bearing plugging capacity could reach 10.73 MPa. The acid dissolution degradation rate at 140°C was 97.69%, indicating a low degree of damage to the reservoir and meeting the requirements for subsequent plug removal. The excellent properties of the resin slurry plugging system, such as high temperature, high salt resistance, and pressure plugging, provide a new solution for plugging lost formations of fracture cave carbonate rocks.