EVALUATION OF PALM OIL BASED FATTY ACIDS FOR SYNTHESIS OF EMULSIFIER IN DRILLING FLUIDS

Drilling mud play a major role in the process of drilling and production and one of its main functions is to provide hydrostatic pressure to prevent kick. Drilling fluids could be categorised as oil based mud and water based mud. The oil based mud functionality outweighs the functionality of water based mud though oil based mud requires emulsifying agent to provide stability to it. This project titled: THE USAGE OF PALM OIL BASED FATTY ACIDS AS AN EMULSIFYING AGENT FOR DRILLING FLUIDS is to determine the ability of emulsifying agent, under high pressure and high temperature, to maintain the stability of oil based mud under high pressure and high temperature. This research will be a stepping stone for future research of the potential drilling fluid additives which is obtainable from abundant local resources. The potential usage of palm products from Malaysia as an emulsifying agent for drilling fluids is still in the experimental stage though it has high potential. Through my research I wish to look into the potential of palm oil based fatty acids able to compete with other non-biodegradable products. The problems caused by using current type emulsifier is mostly due to the nature of the product which does not decompose naturally and may cause a significant impact on the environment if proper treatment is not made before disposal. Other than that, concerning the cost of importing the product which is considerably high. This project involves a lot of lab work and experiments in order to test the effectiveness of the product and could potentially help to identify the optimization usage of palm oil based fatty acids as emulsifying agent for drilling fluids used in drilling operation. The main properties that will be investigated are the emulsion stability, plastic viscosity, yield point, gel strength and HTHP of the mud with the new emulsifier. The test results shows some interesting results in favour of the new emulsifier and will be explained in depth in the results and discussion part.