Abstract
The continuously growing universal demand for energy and declining production is fascinating the research community to invent novel technologies. The oil and gas industry is not only focusing on the discovery of unexplored reserves but also converging to the irrecoverable hydrocarbon reserves. For this purpose, a clear understanding of the vital features of drilling fluid can help to design drilling fluid of selective nature that can overcome the major issues come across during the oil and gas drilling operation. The stability of the drilling fluid under extremely high temperature and high pressure (HTHP) and the environmental footprint during the oil recovery process are major issues. To get stable, simpler, and more economical drilling fluids, a wide variety of nanomaterials have been widely evaluated under varying conditions. The carbon-based nanomaterials demonstrate the unprecedented physicochemical features that are considered very crucial for the smart drilling fluid formulation. The carbon-based nanoparticles (CNPs) are relatively new in the drilling technology, and they are not implemented up to their maximum potential. Several researchers have explored CNPs, their derivatives, and composites to formulate drilling fluid with required features. The resultant fluid system demonstrates better rheological features, friction reduction, low environmental impact, and greater stability under HTHP drilling conditions. However, there are still challenging aspects that must be addressed to take full advantage of the capabilities of CNPs. The present work is a comprehensive review of the recent progress in fluid systems based on carbon nanomaterials, because of their huge impact on the drilling fluid rheology and environmentally friendly nature. The nature of carbon-based nanomaterials, size, shape, and concentration are critically evaluated and discussed in the current article. Finally, this review paper identifies the opportunities for future research of the nanocarbon-based drilling fluids and their applications in the gas and oil exploration sector has been discussed.