Research on the Development and Plugging Capacity of a Honeycomb Porous Lost-Circulation Material

Reducing economic losses and protecting producing strata are important links in the process of oil and gas exploration and exploitation. The key to avoid these problems lies in reducing well leakage accidents in the process of exploitation, in which the correct selection of plugging materials plays a decisive role. In view of the low sealing strength, complex construction, difficulty in unblocking, and high cost of the bridge lost-circulation material (LCM) currently used in plugging, this paper demonstrates the development of a highly elastic honeycomb porous LCM in a targeted manner. Indoor evaluation of the material shows it has good compression resilience and tensile strength: its 50% compression permanent deformation is less than 10% and tensile strength is more than 100 kPa; its retention rate under acidic conditions is more than 97%; it is basically not acid soluble; and at 100 °C aging conditions, the abovementioned performance and properties are maintained in a good manner. Due to the rebound characteristics of the highly elastic honeycomb porous LCM, the material can smoothly enter into different fractures to achieve a good plugging effect under the condition of choosing a suitable size.