Rheology of upstream complex fluids

Abstract

Rheology is an important characterizing technique as it affects all types of fluids. While oil and gas recovery is an operation that depends mainly on the interaction between different fluids, it is therefore important to understand and analyze the flow behavior of these fluids. This chapter presents the basic practices and applications of rheology in the different stages of petroleum operations. The chapter starts by introducing rheology fundamentals and presenting the most common rheological models in the upstream applications to lay the ground for the upcoming discussions. Following, fluid rheology in several applications has been discussed such as reservoir fluids, drilling fluids, emulsion, cement slurries, and polymeric gels. The discussions covered the importance of rheology in these applications and the most common practices in the oil and gas industry. 2023 Elsevier B.V.