SPEGCS Distinguished Lecturer Program, Reservoir Fiber Optic Technology

1. Primary funding is provided by
The SPE Foundation through member donations
and a contribution from Offshore Europe
The Society is grateful to those companies that allow their
professionals to serve as lecturers
Additional support provided by AIME
Society of Petroleum Engineers
Distinguished Lecturer Program
www.spe.org/dl 1

2. E&P Applications of
Fiber Optic Technologies
Dennis Dria
Myden Energy Consulting PLLC
Society of Petroleum Engineers
Distinguished Lecturer Program
www.spe.org/dl
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3. Fiber Optic Sensing in E&P
Why Fiber Optic Monitoring?
Where we are
How it works – an overview
Field examples
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4. 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 4
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5. Well & Reservoir Monitoring Needs
• Well & Completion Integrity
• Production Flow Monitoring
Could we see damage
•onset early enough to
Injection Profiling
•prevent failure?
Thermal Flood Monitoring
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6. 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
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7. 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
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8. Fiber Optics Sensing
• Single Point Sensor
Fiber
Sensing Element
• Multi-point (quasi-distributed) Sensor
Fiber
Multiple Sensing Elements
• Distributed Sensor
Fiber
Fiber itself is Continuous Sensing Element
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9. 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
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10. Single Point Sensing (cont’d)
… and practical realization for downhole applications
Externally pressured cavity (e.g. well
pressure)
Applied pressure
Applied pressure
applied perssure causes change in cavity
length, measured optically
FO Single Sensor
example:
Fabry-Perot fiber-optic
pressure sensing element
(courtesy of Baker Hughes)
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11. Single Point Sensing (cont’d)
… and practical realization for downhole applications
Externally pressured cavity (e.g. well
pressure)
Applied pressure
Applied pressure
applied perssure causes change in cavity
length, measured optically
FO Single Sensor
example:
Fabry-Perot fiber-optic
pressure sensing element
(courtesy of Baker Hughes)
EFPI (External Fabry-Perot) Pressure-
Temperature gauge sensors
(courtesy of Baker Hughes)
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12. 12
Courtesy of Baker Hughes 12

13. Single-Point Sensor
Fiber
Analog is downhole P gauge
Various sensing methods
Different gauges available
P, T, flow, seismic
Installation similar
to conventional gauges 13
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14. Discretely Distributed Sensors
Multiple Sensing Elements
(hundreds to thousands)
Example -
Strain image of
pipe deformation
Pipe bent in test
Shape
determined by
strain imaging Courtesy of Pearce, et al., SPWLA 2009
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15. Bragg Grating Multi-point Precision Sensing
for high-temperature thermal flood monitoring
Courtesy of Robert Caporuscio, 2011 SPE workshop on Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing 15

16. Distributed Sensing
Fiber
Continuously-Distributed: Sensing Elements are microscopic defects in glass
Fiber itself is the sensor
Back-scattered light carries information
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17. Distributed Sensing
Fiber
Continuously-Distributed: Sensing Elements are microscopic defects in glass
Fiber itself is the sensor
Back-scattered light carries information
Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS)
Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS)
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18. Distributed Temperature Sensing
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19. E&P Company DTS applications
a select list of published examples only, not meant to be comprehensive
Gas Lift monitoring/optimization
SPE 67729, SPE 92962, SPE 95798
Production/inflow monitoring
SPE 84324, SPE 87631, SPE 92962, SPE 102678
Injection profiling, water management
SPE 90248, SPE 95419, SPE 94989, SPE 71676
Enhanced Recovery (CO2, Thermal)
SPE 90248, SPE 54599
Well integrity and monitoring
SPE 62952, SPE 107070, SPE 103014
ESP optimization
SPE 103069
Fracture Height Monitoring
SPE 103069
Real-time stimulation monitoring
SPE 100617, SPE 84379
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20. E&P Company DTS applications
a select list of published examples only, not meant to be comprehensive
• Aera Energy
Gas Lift monitoring/optimization
• AGIP
SPE 67729, SPE 92962, SPE 95798
• Anadarko
• BHP Petroleum
Production/inflow monitoring
SPE 84324, SPE 87631, SPE 92962, SPE 102678
• BP
• BSP (Brunei) Injection profiling, water management
SPE 90248, SPE 95419, SPE 94989, SPE 71676
• Centrica Energy
• Chevron/Texaco Enhanced Recovery (CO2, Thermal)
• ConocoPhilips SPE 90248, SPE 54599
• EnCana Well integrity and monitoring
• Husky Energy SPE 62952, SPE 107070, SPE 103014
• Oxy/Occidental ESP optimization
• PDO (Oman) SPE 103069
• PDVSA
Fracture Height Monitoring
• Petrobras
SPE 103069
• Pemex
• Saudi Aramco
Real-time stimulation monitoring
SPE 100617, SPE 84379
• Shell
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• Suncor 20

21. Gas Lift
monitoring
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modified, from Smolen & van der Spek (2003)

22. Time-lapse monitoring of production
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from Pinzon, et al (2007), SPE 110064.

23. Production monitoring – gas breakthrough
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from Pinzon, et al (2007), SPE 110064.

24. 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
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25. Onshore water inj well - DTS behind casing
• stabilized temperature profile to indicate injection profile
• warm back to watch for out‐of‐zone frac
Fracture above
Packer
perfs?
(3) 24 hr
shut in
(1) Lower rate
(2) Higher
rate
from Huckabee, SPE 118831 (2009)
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26. Hydraulic Fracture
Containment Evaluation
Fracture stayed
contained after two
months of
continuous injections
5860’-6160’

27. 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
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28. Thermal tracer method
s
Rahman, et al., SPE 144116 (2011) 28

29. Thermal Tracer Method
onshore water injector
Rahman, et al., SPE 144116 (2011) 29

30. 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 fiber
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31. Permanent
Installation
Example
Cable
clamped
to casing
or tubing
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32. Example Installation - Horizontal Well
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(courtesy of Dean Brown and Paul Huckabee, 2007)

33. SAGD CT Installation – PDVSA (Venezuela)
Optical fiber
(in ¼” dia
stainless
steel tube)
Well head
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from Saputelli, et al (1999), SPE 54104.

34. Fiber-Optic Monitoring - Sand Screen in Gravel Pack & Frac-Pac
Fiber/cable between outer tube and sand screen
Fiber-Optic Enabled
Multiple Completion
Components
• Sand Screen
• Multi-fiber Wet Connect
• Expansion joint
• GP/FP ports
Courtesy of Jeremy Pearce, 2010 SPE workshop
on Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing 34

35. Installation Example – Sand Screen
Permanently
Installed
– Cable
clamped
to casing
or tubing
Courtesy of Tor Kragas, presented at 2009 SPE Workshop on DTS 35
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36. Distributed Acoustic Sensing
• New technology – potential being
demonstrated
Applications include
• Originally taken from perimeter
Flow
intrusion detection
Well diagnostics/leaks
• Acoustic signal every 1 to 10 m
Completion integrity
• Up to 100 km coverage
monitoring
Distance
Distanc
Amplitude e Initial Acoustic
Distance Noise event
Difference
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37. Distributed Acoustic Sensing
“Hear” sand produced
through hole in screen
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OTC 20429
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38. Distributed Acoustic Sensing: Seismic Application
Zero-offset
VSP
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39. Data Management is Important
Near real-time data access
Exception-based reporting
Integrated visualization & interpretation
Life-of-well data storage and access
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40. Data Management Example
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Paterson, 2011 SPE ATW on Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing 40
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41. 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

42. Thank you !
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Distinguished Lecturer Program
www.spe.org/dl 42

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