DIRECTED HORIZONTAL DRILLING

During horizontal directional drilling, the survey team found itself drilling loosely consolidated granular layers interspersed with highly plastic and expansive clays. He contacted Quimacer to offer them a solution that would allow them to drill the ground horizontally.

Initially, they used a bentonite mud to stabilize the borehole walls due to its binding effect.

When using this type of mud, they faced two problems:

èAbove the water table: 

Collapse of the walls. The clays were not consolidated and collapsed easily. The bentonite sludge was loaded with solids.

è Under the water table:

They had high granular (sand and gravel) and clay levels. Granular levels crumbled. The mud became loaded with solids and the pumps could not move the fluid from drilling.

Team’s proposal from QUIMACER: using our polymer QUIMAGEL AS-575

It is a PHPA type polymer, whose main mission in this case is to encapsulate clays and form cake.

Due to the molecular structure of the polymer, it stuck to the walls forming a cake, which guaranteed the stability of the probe, making a succesful drilling.

By encapsulating the clays, they were prevented fro hydrating us, thus allowing the detritus to come out more easily, also leaving the borehole clean.

The problem of clay expansivity was eliminated and the collapse of the material was also avoided, with the consequent loading of solid in th fluid.