Aqueous drilling fluid for reducing bitumen accretion

Abstract

Some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to drilling fluids that comprise an aqueous solvent and an ampholytic semi-hydrophobic polymer that is readily hydratable under field mixing conditions. The ampholytic semi-hydrophobic polymer comprises semi-hydrophobic monomer units comprising a C1-C7 hydrocarbyl substituent, a hydrogen substituent, or a combination thereof. Some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to use of a drilling fluid as defined herein to reduce bitumen accretion to a wellbore drilling component. Some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods for reducing bitumen accretion to a wellbore drilling component, the method comprising introducing a drilling fluid as defined herein into a wellbore containing the wellbore drilling component.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.