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The data you need at a price you can afford

In a depressed Oil and Gas market, expenditure on the most optimum downhole completion system, components and designs, including critical reservoir monitoring systems, is often sacrificed as budget constraints bite. As a result, Reservoir Engineers and Production Technologists are not able to fully monitor the reservoir and identify, diagnose and take appropriate remedial actions. As a result, operators are missing out on the opportunity to, for example, optimise production or injection profiles and isolate water producing zones based on multi-zone data acquisition and analysis. The end result is that well and reservoir management is often compromised over the life of the well, resulting in reduced hydrocarbon recovery.

Smart Fibres have developed a solution to this challenge with a cost effective Fibre Optic Distributed Pressure and Temperature Sensing System (DPTS). Using Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) technology, DPTS offers a considerable cost saving compared to traditional Quartz based monitoring systems, especially when multiple FBG gauges are deployed.  As an example a typical 4 zone installation would be approximately 1/3 of the cost of a Quartz gauge equivalent.

The right data, always available

Reservoir engineers consistently state that the measurement of most value to them is pressure. Fluid levels and flow can be directly calculated from pressure via empirical calculations. Smart Fibres DPTS gives true pressure and temperature measurements wherever a gauge is located. This gives advantage over, for instance, distributed temperature sensing where flow is derived from a set of assumptions of the interplay between flow and temperature; assumptions that cannot be verified as accurate.

In addition to its game changing cost effectiveness and true measurement, Smart Fibres' DPTS system also offers the following major technical advantages: 

  • Reliability – No downhole electronics and minimal parts. Only optical signal required from surface to downhole so no long term degradation, even at high temperatures.
  • Long reach data quality - DPTS is based on FBG technology in which data is encoded in light wavelength. This is not affected by attenuation, so enabling measurements at tens of Km distance and via high attenuating connections with no impact on data quality. It also maked DPTS immune to the affects of hydrogen darkening that blights other distributed sensing systems.
  • Redundancy – Multiple options for fiber cable implementation, affording communication network redundancy.
  • Safety – ATEX certified intrinsically safe system due to lack of electrical power requirements at wellhead and downhole.
  • Integration – DTS and DAS can be integrated within the fibre cable if required.
  • Multi-drop – Typically 15 or more gauges can be multiplexed over just 2 fibres encapsulated in a ¼” control line/cable over tens of Km. Adding more fibres allows more gauges.
  • HPHT capability – Currently rated at 200 degC and up to 20,000 psi, 280 degC variant in development.
  • Unique deployment method – A pre-assembled array of sensors can be deployed on a spooling unit “cassette”, eliminating field splices.
  • No gauge mandrel required – Can be deployed with the ID of cross coupling clamp, supported and protected by a 3D printed Teflon insert.  

A major oil Company is already deploying DPTS technology in the middle east for fluid contact monitoring, with multiple installations planned from 2017.

In summary, Smart Fibres' DPTS technology offers a cost effective alternative to electrical sensing systems with improved reliability, flexibility and safety.

Watch our DPTS Deployment Video

 

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