RHEOLOGICAL CHARACTERISATION OF CRUDE OIL FOR DRILLING AND PRODUCTION PETROLEUM APPLICATION

Abstract

Crude oil is subjected to important variation in temperature during its extraction and transport in the pipelines, or when used in oil based drilling fluids. These changes have a direct effect on the rheology of oil which conditions its transport or ensures a good cleaning of the well as a drilling mud. According to these considerations, it is interesting to know how the rheological properties of crude oil vary as a function of temperature over a relatively long period of time. This study has been conducted on a sample of crude oil, which has been subsequently aged several months, the rheological behavior of oil was determined at a temperature of 20 ° C by using a Rheometer ARES, then the viscosity temperature relationship was investigated for temperatures of 20 °, 30 °, 40 °, 50 ° 60 ° and 80 ° C, and finally the activation energies of the two samples were calculated