Study On Batu Gajah Clay as Drilling Fluid Materials

CLAY is a common material used for water based drilling fluid. The montmorillonite
found in clay is beneficial for the drilling fluid technology. This project aims to evaluate
the suitability of the clay as the drilling fluid material. This project is to analyze the
physical, chemical, and mineralogy and also the rheological properties of the clay sample
from Batu Gajah. Based on the physical analysis, the clay was found to be silt with high
plasticity value. The clay then analyzed for its mineral composition using X Ray
Diffractometer, and the sample was proven to be mainly composed of quartz. X Ray
Fluorescence (XRF) analysis shows that the ratio of A1203/SiO2 is 1/3 which however
proven that they clay sample contains high montmorillonite. The clay sample was shown
to have low capacity of water adsorption as it obtained very low value of Cation
Exchanged Capacity (CEC) compared to the reference bentonite. The clay has weak
Theological properties such as the viscosity, yield point and gel strength. Due to the weak
Theological properties, the clay sample experienced huge losses of filtration that caused the mud cake thickness to be higher than the reference bentonite. Overall, the raw clay sample is not suitable to be formulated to drilling fluid. Therefore, there are recommendations for the clay sample to improve its weak properties. Organic polymer can be used to control the rheology and filtrate loss for water based drilling fluid.