Preparation and performance evaluation of the slickwater using novel polymeric drag reducing agent with high temperature and shear resistance ability

Slickwater fracturing fluids are widely used in the development of unconventional oil and gas resources due to the advantages of low cost, low formation damage and high drag reduction performance. However, their performance is severely affected at high temperatures. Drag reducing agent is the key to determine the drag reducing performance of slickwater. In this work, in order to further improve the temperature resistance of slickwater, a temperature-resistant polymeric drag reducing agent (PDRA) was synthesized and used as the basis for preparing the temperature-resistant slickwater. The slickwater system was prepared with the compositions of 0.2 wt% PDRA, 0.05 wt% drainage aid nonylphenol polyoxyethylene ether phosphate (NPEP) and 0.5 wt% anti-expansion agent polyepichlorohydrin-dimethylamine (PDM). The drag reduction ability, rheology properties, temperature and shear resistance ability, and core damage property of slickwater were systematically studied and evaluated. In contrast to on-site drag reducing agent (DRA) and HPAM, the temperature-resistant slickwater demonstrates enhanced drag reduction efficacy at 90 °C, exhibiting superior temperature and shear resistance ability. Notably, the drag reduction retention rate for the slickwater achieved an impressive 90.52% after a 30-min shearing period. Additionally, the core damage is only 5.53%. We expect that this study can broaden the application of slickwater in high-temperature reservoirs and provide a theoretical basis for field applications.