API Drilling-Grade Bentonite for Oilfield Drilling
APM supplies drilling-grade bentonite to API Specification 13A for oilfield drilling. In water-based drilling fluids, bentonite builds viscosity and carries cuttings out of the hole. It also keeps weighting materials such as barite in suspension, and it forms a thin filter cake that controls fluid loss and keeps the wellbore stable.
We can supply Wyoming sodium bentonite, which is widely regarded as the premium grade, as well as Indian bentonite. Both are available to the API 13A Section 9 (ISO 13500) specification shown below, and they can be shipped with API barite for the same drilling programme.
Our drilling-grade bentonite is also used in water well drilling, horizontal directional drilling and tunnelling.
Specification
API 13A Drilling-Grade Bentonite
| Standard | API Spec 13A, Section 9 (ISO 13500), drilling-grade bentonite |
| Viscometer dial reading at 600 rpm | 30 min |
| Yield point / plastic viscosity ratio | 3 max |
| Filtrate volume | 15.0 cm3 max |
| Residue > 75 micrometers | 4.0% max (by mass) |
| Moisture | 10.0% max (by mass) |
