An Industry Overview of Downhole Monitoring Using Distributed Temperature Sensing: Fundamentals and Two Decades Deployment in Oil and Gas Industries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Soroush ◽  
Mohammad Mohammadtabar ◽  
Morteza Roostaei ◽  
Seyed Abolhassan Hosseini ◽  
Mahdi Mahmoudi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Historical Development ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Temperature Sensing ◽  
Production Performance ◽  
Fluid Composition ◽  
Fiber Types ◽  
Distributed Temperature Sensing ◽  
Water Steam ◽  
Downhole Monitoring ◽  
Quantitative Approaches

Abstract Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) system using optical fiber has been deployed for downhole monitoring over two-decades. Several technological advancements led to a wide acceptance of this technology as a reliable surveillance technique. This paper presents a comprehensive technical review of all the applications of the DTS, with focus on oil and gas industrial deployments. The paper starts with the advantages of the DTS over other methods and an overview of the DTS basics, including theory, the DTS components, deployment types, fiber types, design and limitations. Then, it is followed by the oil and gas applications of the DTS including hydraulic fracturing (during and after fracturing), well treatment/stimulation (acid injection, fluid distribution, diversion monitoring), inorganic (scaling) and organic (wax/asphaltene/hydrate) deposition detection, leak detection (in well and pipeline), flow monitoring (rate monitoring, water/steam injection and SAGD monitoring, CO2 storage monitoring, zonal contribution determination, gas lift optimization) and reservoir/fluid characterization (facies, porosity, permeability and fluid composition determination). This study reviews the historical development, applications and limitations of the DTS systems. The paper mainly focusses on deployment techniques, the application of the DTS for the prediction and surveillance of the non-thermal and thermal producer/injector wells, hydraulically fractured wells and those wells with treatments. The paper provides a concise review using several field cases from over two hundred published papers of Society of Petroleum Engineering (SPE) and journal databases. The application of the DTS in downhole monitoring can be divided into the qualitative and quantitative applications. In quantitative approaches, numerical models should be combined with the DTS data. This study discusses case by case worldwide field applications of DTS along with proposed modeling methods and interpretations. It also summarizes main challenges, including the fiber reliability, longevity, and operational limitations such as the installation and the complexity of quantitative approaches. This study is the foundation for an ongoing study on wellbore and reservoir surveillance through real-time distributed fiber optic sensing recordings along the wellbore. It summarizes the historical development and limitations to identify the existing gaps and reviews the lessons learned through the two decades of the application of the DTS in production performance.

High-spatial-resolution Distributed Temperature Sensing System Based on a Mode-locked Fiber Laser

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton O. Chernutsky ◽  
Dmitriy A. Dvoretskiy ◽  
Ilya O. Orekhov ◽  
Stanislav G. Sazonkin ◽  
Yan Zh. Ososkov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fiber Laser ◽  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
High Spatial Resolution ◽  
Temperature Sensing ◽  
Distributed Temperature Sensing ◽  
Sensing System

scholarly journals Thermodynamics of a fast-moving Greenlandic outlet glacier revealed by fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (20) ◽  
pp. eabe7136
Author(s):  
Robert Law ◽  
Poul Christoffersen ◽  
Bryn Hubbard ◽  
Samuel H. Doyle ◽  
Thomas R. Chudley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fiber Optic ◽  
Basal Layer ◽  
Temperature Sensing ◽  
Distributed Temperature Sensing ◽  
Catchment Scale ◽  
Outlet Glacier ◽  
Coarse Spatial Resolution ◽  
High Vertical Resolution ◽  
Fast Motion ◽  
Strain Heating

Measurements of ice temperature provide crucial constraints on ice viscosity and the thermodynamic processes occurring within a glacier. However, such measurements are presently limited by a small number of relatively coarse-spatial-resolution borehole records, especially for ice sheets. Here, we advance our understanding of glacier thermodynamics with an exceptionally high-vertical-resolution (~0.65 m), distributed-fiber-optic temperature-sensing profile from a 1043-m borehole drilled to the base of Sermeq Kujalleq (Store Glacier), Greenland. We report substantial but isolated strain heating within interglacial-phase ice at 208 to 242 m depth together with strongly heterogeneous ice deformation in glacial-phase ice below 889 m. We also observe a high-strain interface between glacial- and interglacial-phase ice and a 73-m-thick temperate basal layer, interpreted as locally formed and important for the glacier’s fast motion. These findings demonstrate notable spatial heterogeneity, both vertically and at the catchment scale, in the conditions facilitating the fast motion of marine-terminating glaciers in Greenland.

scholarly journals Review of Femtosecond-Laser-Inscribed Fiber Bragg Gratings: Fabrication Technologies and Sensing Applications

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun He ◽  
Baijie Xu ◽  
Xizhen Xu ◽  
Changrui Liao ◽  
Yiping Wang
Keyword(s):  
Femtosecond Laser ◽  
Optical Fiber ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Optical Fiber Sensor ◽  
Phase Mask ◽  
Fiber Types ◽  
Direct Writing ◽  
Excellent Thermal Stability ◽  
Sensing Applications ◽  
Compact Size

AbstractFiber Bragg grating (FBG) is the most widely used optical fiber sensor due to its compact size, high sensitivity, and easiness for multiplexing. Conventional FBGs fabricated by using an ultraviolet (UV) laser phase-mask method require the sensitization of the optical fiber and could not be used at high temperatures. Recently, the fabrication of FBGs by using a femtosecond laser has attracted extensive interests due to its excellent flexibility in creating FBGs array or special FBGs with complex spectra. The femtosecond laser could also be used for inscribing various FBGs on almost all fiber types, even fibers without any photosensitivity. Such femtosecond-laser-induced FBGs exhibit excellent thermal stability, which is suitable for sensing in harsh environment. In this review, we present the historical developments and recent advances in the fabrication technologies and sensing applications of femtosecond-laser-inscribed FBGs. Firstly, the mechanism of femtosecond-laser-induced material modification is introduced. And then, three different fabrication technologies, i.e., femtosecond laser phase mask technology, femtosecond laser holographic interferometry, and femtosecond laser direct writing technology, are discussed. Finally, the advances in high-temperature sensing applications and vector bending sensing applications of various femtosecond-laser-inscribed FBGs are summarized. Such femtosecond-laser-inscribed FBGs are promising in many industrial areas, such as aerospace vehicles, nuclear plants, oil and gas explorations, and advanced robotics in harsh environments.

scholarly journals A Thermal Model for Three-Core Armored Submarine Cables Based on Distributed Temperature Sensing

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3897
Author(s):  
Miguel Ángel González-Cagigal ◽  
Juan Carlos del-Pino-López ◽  
Alfonso Bachiller-Soler ◽  
Pedro Cruz-Romero ◽  
José Antonio Rosendo-Macías
Keyword(s):  
Temperature Sensing ◽  
The Finite Element Method ◽  
Current Profile ◽  
Distributed Temperature Sensing ◽  
Numerical Resolution ◽  
Electromagnetic Model ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Relative Errors ◽  
Dynamic Loading Conditions ◽  
Submarine Cables

This paper presents a procedure for the derivation of an equivalent thermal network-based model applied to three-core armored submarine cables. The heat losses of the different metallic cable parts are represented as a function of the corresponding temperatures and the conductor current, using a curve-fitting technique. The model was applied to two cables with different filler designs, supposed to be equipped with distributed temperature sensing (DTS) and the optical fiber location in the equivalent circuit was adjusted so that the conductor temperature could be accurately estimated using the sensor measurements. The accuracy of the proposed model was tested for both stationary and dynamic loading conditions, with the corresponding simulations carried out using a hybrid 2D-thermal/3D-electromagnetic model and the finite element method for the numerical resolution. Mean relative errors between 1 and 3% were obtained using an actual current profile. The presented procedure can be used by cable manufacturers or by utilities to properly evaluate the cable thermal situation.

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