Shedding (Fiber) Light on Wells

OptaSense has been deploying fiber optic DAS technology to gather permanent flow, seismic and vertical seismic profile data for clients. It’s cheaper than using ocean bottom nodes as well as offering a permanent broadband sensor downhole for time-lapse surveys with which you can measure other processes in the well, such as the impact of water floods, gas lift or inflow control valves, says J.Andres Chavarria, from OptaSense. “The beauty of fiber is you get to see the entire dynamic across the entire well,” he says. “Fiber is sensitive to acoustics and temperature; DAS is very accurate with fine spatial resolution. When you couple that to flow velocity measurements for each injection point, we start to build a model of how reservoir production is impacted depending on the completion design.” It can even detect a small magnitude earthquake, which could be useful if an operator needs to show it didn’t come from their field.

Chavarria says the technology has been used offshore including wells with 1-kilometer (km) water depth in the US Gulf of Mexico to test completion zones and verify a production model, by building production profiles across the entire reservoir with different zones flowing.
Shedding (Fiber) Light on Wells
Offshore Engineer February 20, 2020
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