Patent ID: 7399731

Claim:
A method of increasing the electrical conductivity of a non-aqueous wellbore fluid with a non-aqueous continuous phase, comprising adding to the wellbore fluid: a compound selected from the group consisting of: (i) one or more organic salts having the formula ((R 1 -Q) p X) m Z n , (ii) one or more organic acids corresponding to said organic salts and being intended to form (R 1 -Q) p X anions in the non-aqueous continuous phase of the wellbore fluid, (iii) one or more oligomeric organic salts based on linked ((R 1 -Q) p X) m Z n subunits, (iv) one or more oligomeric organic acids corresponding to the oligomeric organic salts and being intended to form oligomerically linked (R 1 -Q) p X anions in the non-aqueous continuous phase of the wellbore fluid, or (v) a mixture thereof; and an electrical conductivity-enhancing amount of an organic solubilizing agent selected from the group consisting of: ethylene glycol; neopentyl glycol; a C 8 -C 16 alcohol; a C 3 -C 18 di-ol; a C 8 -C 16 ketone; a C 8 -C 16 ether; a C 8 -C 16 ester; 1,3,5-trioxane, 1,4-dioxane, 1,4-dioxane-2,3-diol; a non-ionic surfactant comprising the reaction product of an aliphatic alcohol, acid, amide or alkyl phenol with an alkylene oxide; a crown ether; a polyoxyethylene sorbitan long-chain fatty acid ester; a sorbitan long chain fatty acid ester; tripropyl orthoformate, triethyl orthoformate, trimethyl orthobutyrate, malonaldehyde bis(diethyl acetal), 1,2,6,6-tetramethoxyhexane, trimethyl orthovalerate, tetraethyl orthocarbonate; chloroform, dichloromethane; and mixtures thereof, wherein the solubilizing agent has a dielectric constant of at least 5 wherein: X is a negatively charged functional group, R 1 is an organic group comprising a principal straight chain and one or more side chains which branch from and are shorter than said principal straight chain, Q is a covalent bond or a polar linkage group which connects a terminal atom of the principal straight chain of the organic group R 1 to the functional group X, p is a positive integer which is the number of organic groups R 1 which are connected to the functional group X, Z is a cation selected from the group consisting of Li + , K + , Na + , Mg 2+ , Ca 2+ , Sr 2+ , and Ba 2+ ; and m and n are positive integers which ensure that the organic salts are charge neutral; and wherein the concentration of the one or more organic salts in the non-aqueous continuous phase is in the range of 0.001 to 3 M at 20° C.