Baker Hughes Defies Nature with an Upgrade to Ol’ Fashioned Cement

Cement is a key ingredient for oil and gas operations. Its uses range from securing the wellbore and protecting casing, to providing structural integrity to the well.

Yet despite its importance, all cement has one fundamental flaw: it will eventually succumb to nature and weaken and erode. And while current solutions like swellable elastomers mitigate some of the issues, they’re not as effective as good ol’ fashioned cement.

Baker Hughes’ InvictaSet cementing solution looks to provide an upgrade, Greg Dean, business development manager for global cementing at Baker Hughes, told Hart Energy.

The uniqueness of InvictaSet lies in its chemical composition, which reacts with water or hydrocarbons to form crystals that effectively seal cracks at the micron level.

“If you can imagine that little fissure or crack on the micron level, just growing a crystal in there, is going be a blocker of flow. And so things won’t be able to flow past that crystal that’s generating through a special chemical process,” Dean said.

Unlike traditional swellable elastomers that merely expand to block leaks without offering structural integrity, InvictaSet provides a more robust solution, capable of withstanding pressures while effectively sealing off potential leaks. The regenerative capabilities of InvictaSet enable it to last the entire lifecycle of the well without anything needing to be reinjected. The technology not only targets water leaks but also addresses hydrocarbon containment, providing operators with a dual-purpose solution.

The versatility is a game-changer, simplifying the approach to sealing various types of leaks without the need for extensive and costly repairs.

InvictaSet was primarily developed to mitigate the risks associated with methane and other emissions from wells. Traditional methods of repairing leaks, such as cement squeezes, often require rig mobilization, which incurs significant costs and environmental footprints. By reducing the need for these repairs, InvictaSet can lower emissions and improve overall operational efficiency.

But this ability was actually discovered on accident, Dean said, when Baker Hughes was looking for ways to prevent water from leaking through the well casing annuli.

“The InvictaSet technology was effective in water. But additionally, we found that this would work in hydrocarbon,” he said. “So by having the new technology, we are not only able to just attack the water problem, but we’re able to treat any potential reservoir fluid water or hydrocarbon, we kind of take the guesswork out of designing the job to which fluid is causing the problem.”

While InvictaSet has shown efficacy in sealing both water and hydrocarbon leaks, there remains ongoing research into its potential applications. So far, the InvictaSet technology can work in temperatures up to 300 F, but further research is needed in higher temperatures, Dean said.

Baker Hughes is also looking into carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) as another explorable avenue for the technology, he said. The technology’s adaptability could be used to make sense of CCUS’ complexity, though more testing needs to be done to make any claims about suitability, Dean said.

“Carbon capture is a whole [other] area of concern and topic of study … regardless of what’s in the crack, if the matrix around the crack is not suitable for CCUS, it won’t really matter how good the crystal regeneration material and its capabilities are,” he said.

Even so, InvictaSet represents a big step toward sustainable oil and gas operations as the industry faces increasing scrutiny over environmental impacts. With operators eager to adopt new solutions, Dean reported a growing interest across various markets, signaling a strong potential for rapid implementation.

 Because of the important role cement plays within the well, as it will be there for the well’s entire life, the job needs to be done correctly, he said.

“This means a bit more lab testing and getting those things done. In our global network of laboratories, we want to fine tune and make sure that everybody is implementing the technology correctly, because if you don’t do it correctly the first time, that that can be problematic. We need to make sure everything is done by the book,” Dean said.

Field trials in the Middle East have shown promising results for InvictaSet. Dean noted that extensive testing over several damage cycles has demonstrated the cement’s durability, with the sealing process continuing even after weeks of exposure to stress conditions.

“Now extrapolating that to eons, if you will, we can't test that in the lab, but definitely it's got some longevity to it,” he stated.

Interest is taking off in many operations globally following reports of ease of use when implementing the technology in field trials in the Middle East, Dean said.

“We see a lot of great potential coming very quickly in the next few months.”