Preparation and performance evaluation of hydrophobically associating polymer anti‐water channeling agent for oil well cement

Abstract The channeling resistance of cement slurry is one of the critical factors related to cementing quality, especially in the cementing of adjustment well. Due to the complex pressure layer and large pressure fluctuation, the annular channeling problem is easily caused by water invasion. Using 2‐acrylamide‐2‐methyl propane sulfonic acid (AMPS), acrylamide (AM), maleic anhydride (MA), acrylic ester 18(St) as raw materials, we prepared a hydrophobic associative polymer (SMAL) by free radical micellar polymerization. The synthetic products were characterized by IR, NMR, and SEM, and the evaluated engineering application performance. The results showed that SMAL achieved the expected synthesis purpose. Compared with the water channeling pressure of 0.1 Mpa for blank cement slurry, the water channeling pressure of SMAL cement slurry reaches 5.3 Mpa, which significantly improves the anti‐water channeling ability of cement slurry. After adding SMAL, the 14d flexural strength of cement stone was also increased from 7.7 to 8.3 MPa, which had no adverse effect on cement slurry's rheological property.