The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 18, 1990
Filed:
Mar. 20, 1989
Dennis G Peiffer, East Brunswick, NJ (US);
Robert D Lundberg, Bridgewater, NJ (US);
John C Newlove, Kingwood, TX (US);
Eugen R Werlein, Simonton, TX (US);
Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Florham Park, NJ (US);
Abstract
The present invention relates to sulfonated thermoplastic terpolymers which are terpolymers of p-methyl styrene, styrene and sodium styrene sulfonate wherein these sulfonated terpolymers function as viscosification agents when added to oil-based drilling muds which are the fluids used to maintain pressure, cool drill fits and lift cuttings from the holes in the drilling operation for oil an gas wells. The sulfonated thermoplastic terpolymer of the latex have about 5 to about 100 meq. of sulfonate groups per 100 grams of the sulfonated thermoplastic terpolymer, wherein the sulfonated groups are neutralized with a metallic cation or an amine or ammonium counterion. A polar cosolvent can optionally be added to the mixture of oil drilling mud and sulfonated thermoplastic polymer, wherein the polar cosolvent increases the solubility of the sulfonated thermoplastic terpolymer in the oil drilling and by decreasing the strong ionic interactions between the sulfonate groups of the sulfonated polymer. The drilling muds formed from these lattices of the sulfonated thermoplastic terpolymers exhibits markedly improved low and high temperature rheological properties as compared to drilling muds formed from sulfonated thermoplastic copolymers.