1. adj. [Drilling Fluids, Enhanced Oil Recovery]

Pertaining to an attraction for water by the surface of a material or a molecule. Clays and most other natural minerals used in drilling fluids, such as barite and hematite, are hydrophilic. They are spontaneously wet by water. To render them oleophilic, they can be treated with an oil-wetting chemical.

Antonyms: hydrophobic,  lipophilic

See: clay-water interaction,  dispersion,  drilling fluid,  guar gum,  hydration,  hydrophile-lipophile balance number,  lyophilic,  organophilic,  organophilic clay,  surfactant