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Society of Petroleum Engineers Distinguished Lecturer Programwww.spe.org/dl 1

E&P Applications of Fiber Optic Technologies

Dennis DriaMyden Energy Consulting PLLC

Society of Petroleum Engineers Distinguished Lecturer Programwww.spe.org/dl

2

Fiber Optic Sensing in E&P

Why Fiber Optic Monitoring?

Where we are

How it works – an overview

Field examples

3

Well & Reservoir Monitoring Needs

• Well & Completion Integrity– Casing & tubing leaks, sand control

components

• Production Flow Monitoring

– Zonal allocation, gas/water breakthrough

• Injection Monitoring– Injection profile, fracture growth

• Thermal Flood Monitoring 44

Well & Reservoir Monitoring Needs

• Well & Completion Integrity

• Production Flow Monitoring

• Injection Profiling

• Thermal Flood Monitoring

5

Could we see damage onset early enough to prevent failure?

5

Well & Reservoir Challenges

• Can’t always run Production Logs

• Well intervention difficult due to well design

• Need real-time data for control

• “Smart well” operation

66

Fiber-Optic (FO) Technologies

• In the oil field since the mid 90’s.

• Introduced by small, ‘high-tech’ companies – often absorbed by the major service companies

• Developed and successfully deployed– temperature, pressure, strain and acoustics

• Acceptable reliability has been established

77

Fiber Optics Sensing

• Single Point Sensor

• Multi-point (quasi-distributed) Sensor

• Distributed Sensor

Sensing Element

Multiple Sensing Elements

Fiber itself is Continuous Sensing Element

Fiber

Fiber

Fiber

88

Single Point Sensing Fabry-Perot concept

response to pressure is a function of the distance between two reflectors

Externally pressured cavity (e.g. well pressure)

Applied pressure

Applied pressure

applied perssure causes change in cavity length,

measured optically

9

Single Point Sensing (cont’d)

… and practical realization for downhole applications

FO Single Sensorexample:Fabry-Perot fiber-optic pressure sensing element(courtesy of Baker Hughes)

Externally pressured cavity (e.g. well

pressure)

Applied pressure

Applied pressure

applied perssure causes change in cavity

length, measured optically

10

Single Point Sensing (cont’d)

… and practical realization for downhole applications

EFPI (External Fabry-Perot) Pressure-Temperature gauge sensors(courtesy of Baker Hughes)

Externally pressured cavity (e.g. well

pressure)

Applied pressure

Applied pressure

applied perssure causes change in cavity

length, measured optically

FO Single Sensorexample:Fabry-Perot fiber-optic pressure sensing element(courtesy of Baker Hughes)

11

12Courtesy of Baker Hughes12

Single-Point Sensor

Analog is downhole P gauge

Various sensing methods

Different gauges availableP, T, flow, seismic

Installation similar

to conventional gauges

Fiber

1313

Discretely Distributed Sensors

Multiple Sensing Elements (hundreds to thousands)

Courtesy of Pearce, et al., SPWLA 2009

Example -Strain image of pipe deformation

Pipe bent in test

Shape determined by strain imaging 14

14

Bragg Grating Multi-point Precision Sensing for high-temperature thermal flood monitoring

15Courtesy of Robert Caporuscio, 2011 SPE workshop on Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing

Distributed SensingFiber

Continuously-Distributed: Sensing Elements are microscopic defects in glass

Fiber itself is the sensor

Back-scattered light carries information

1616

Distributed SensingFiber

Continuously-Distributed: Sensing Elements are microscopic defects in glass

Fiber itself is the sensor

Back-scattered light carries information

17

Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS)

Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS)17

Distributed Temperature Sensing

1818

E&P Company DTS applicationsa select list of published examples only, not meant to be comprehensive

Gas Lift monitoring/optimization SPE 67729, SPE 92962, SPE 95798

Production/inflow monitoringSPE 84324, SPE 87631, SPE 92962, SPE 102678

Injection profiling, water managementSPE 90248, SPE 95419, SPE 94989, SPE 71676

Enhanced Recovery (CO2, Thermal)SPE 90248, SPE 54599

Well integrity and monitoringSPE 62952, SPE 107070, SPE 103014

ESP optimizationSPE 103069

Fracture Height MonitoringSPE 103069

Real-time stimulation monitoringSPE 100617, SPE 84379

1919

E&P Company DTS applicationsa select list of published examples only, not meant to be comprehensive

• Aera Energy• AGIP• Anadarko • BHP Petroleum• BP• BSP (Brunei)• Centrica Energy• Chevron/Texaco• ConocoPhilips• EnCana• Husky Energy• Oxy/Occidental• PDO (Oman)• PDVSA• Petrobras• Pemex• Saudi Aramco• Shell• Suncor 20

20

Gas Lift monitoring/optimization SPE 67729, SPE 92962, SPE 95798

Production/inflow monitoringSPE 84324, SPE 87631, SPE 92962, SPE 102678

Injection profiling, water managementSPE 90248, SPE 95419, SPE 94989, SPE 71676

Enhanced Recovery (CO2, Thermal)SPE 90248, SPE 54599

Well integrity and monitoringSPE 62952, SPE 107070, SPE 103014

ESP optimizationSPE 103069

Fracture Height MonitoringSPE 103069

Real-time stimulation monitoringSPE 100617, SPE 84379

Gas Lift monitoring

21

modified, from Smolen & van der Spek (2003)

Time-lapse monitoring of production

from Pinzon, et al (2007), SPE 110064.

22

Production monitoring – gas breakthrough

from Pinzon, et al (2007), SPE 110064.

2323

Temperature Monitoring of Injector Wells

• Sand-face temperature profile during injection– Qualitative but useful– Value in time-lapse measurement

• Warm back during shut in– Slower warm back to geothermal = high local inj rate– Faster warm back to geothermal = low local injection rate

• Thermal tracer– Similar in principle to radioactive tracer method– Yields water velocity ~ spinner

24

Onshore water inj well - DTS behind casing

from Huckabee, SPE 118831 (2009)25

Packer   Fracture above  perfs?

(1) Lower rate

(2) Higher rate

(3) 24 hrshut in

• stabilized temperature profile to indicate injection profile • warm back to watch for out‐of‐zone frac

Hydraulic Fracture Containment Evaluation

Fracture stayed contained after two months of continuous injections

5860’-6160’

Thermal tracer method

Similar to how radioactive tracer is used to obtain fluid velocity

Use tracer velocity ~ spinner analysis

• Track a temperature “anomaly” with DTS• Calculate the velocity of the temperature anomaly• Temperature velocity = water velocity• In-situ water flow rate = velocity/pipe cross-sectional area• Change in in-situ rate indicates water injection

27

Thermal tracer method

28s

Rahman, et al., SPE 144116 (2011)

Thermal Tracer Method onshore water injector

Rahman, et al., SPE 144116 (2011) 29

Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS)

installation options

Permanently Installed

– Cable clamped to casing, tubing or sand screen

– Pump fiber down control line

Intervention – similar to logging

– Coiled tubing with fiber

– “Mini-coil” – fiber in capillary tube

– Slick line with integral fiber30

30

Permanent Installation

Example

Cable clamped to casing or tubing

3131

Example Installation - Horizontal Well

(courtesy of Dean Brown and Paul Huckabee, 2007)

3232

SAGD CT Installation – PDVSA (Venezuela)

Well head

33

Optical fiber (in ¼” diastainless steel tube)

from Saputelli, et al (1999), SPE 54104.

Fiber-Optic Monitoring - Sand Screen in Gravel Pack & Frac-Pac

34Courtesy of Jeremy Pearce, 2010 SPE workshop on Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing

Fiber/cable between outer tube and sand screen

Fiber-Optic EnabledMultiple Completion

Components

• Sand Screen• Multi-fiber Wet Connect• Expansion joint• GP/FP ports

Installation Example – Sand Screen

Permanently Installed

– Cable clamped to casing or tubing

35Courtesy of Tor Kragas, presented at 2009 SPE Workshop on DTS 35

Distributed Acoustic Sensing• New technology – potential being

demonstrated• Originally taken from perimeter

intrusion detection• Acoustic signal every 1 to 10 m • Up to 100 km coverage

36

Applications include FlowWell diagnostics/leaksCompletion integrity

monitoring

36

AmplitudeDistanceDistance

Initial Acoustic

Noise eventDistance Difference

Distributed Acoustic Sensing

OTC 20429

“Hear” sand produced through hole in screen

3737

Distributed Acoustic Sensing: Seismic Application

3838

Zero-offset VSP

Data Management is Important

Near real-time data access

Exception-based reporting

Integrated visualization & interpretation

Life-of-well data storage and access

3939

Data Management Example

4040Paterson, 2011 SPE ATW on Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing 40

Conclusions

Fiber optic sensors provide real-time monitoring capability

• Pressure

• Temperature

• Acoustic

Value of optical sensors demonstrated • When needed to make decisions

• Production & Injection flow

• Mechanical integrity 41

Thank you !

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