Abstract

In view of the ability of present oil well cement retarder is poor to adapt to the large temperature difference, using 2-acrylamido-2-methyl propane sulfonic acid (AMPS) and Itaconic Acid (IA), a new retarder AMPS/IA (AI) which could solve the problem of the large temperature difference was synthesized by free radical aqueous solution copolymerization. The effect of reaction conditions on the properties of retarder was studied. The results indicate that the monomer ratio and the pH value are more important than the monomer concentration, temperature and initiator dosage as impact factor for the performance of AI. The optimal AI (OAI) was obtained under the optimum reaction conditions: mole ratio of AMPS/IA = 73/27, monomer concentration = 40%, amount of (by weight of monomer) initiator = 2%, pH value = 2 and temperature = 60°C. Compared with the ordinary retarder, the OAI has merits as follows: excellent thermal resistant ability, less dosage, suitable for large temperature difference. The thickening time of the slurry with 1.5% OAI is 313 min at 180°C; the setting time is 72 h at 50°C, which indicates the OAI could meet the temperature range from 50°C to 180°C. In short, the OAI has excellent ability to adapt to the large temperature difference.

Keywords:

Cement, cementing, oil well, retarder, synthesis conditions,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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The authors have no competing interests.