To address present concerns about thickening time and high early-strength in deepwater cementing at low temperatures when using conventional accelerators, a new type of set-accelerating admixture comprising of lithium chloride, aluminium hydroxide and alkaline metal chlorides, named as LS-A, was studied in this paper. Mechanism analysis and performance tests show that the accelerator LS-A accelerated the hydration of tri- and dicalcium silicates （C3S and C2S） at low-temperatures by speeding up the breakdown of the protective hydration film and shortening the hydration induction period. Therefore, LS-A could shorten the low-temperature thickening time and the transition time of critical gel strength from 48 to 240 Pa of the Class-G cement slurry, and improve the early compressive strength of set cement at low-temperatures. It exhibited better performance than calcium chloride and had no effect on the type of hydration products, which remain the same as those of neat Class-G cement, i.e. the calcium silicate gel, Ca（OH）2 crystals and a small amount of ettringite AFt crystals. LS-A provides an effective way to guarantee the safety of cementing operations, and to solve the problems of low temperature and shallow water/gas flowing faced in deepwater cementing.
