E!12479 A smart inflow control valve for oil production pipes to reduce pollution and maximize oil recovery

InflowControl has developed an Autonomous Inflow Valve (AICV) that maximizes production from mature and new oil fields by stopping gas and water breakthrough during oil production. The AICV does not require power or external control to operate and use fluid properties (viscosity and density) to control fluid flow, reduce water cut by 90% and increase oil recovery by 25%. Some of our customers want to create "smart wells", using data from well to maximize production. Our AICV is in fact a passive multi-phase flow meter installed down in the well. This project will retrieve data from the valve without removing the autonomous robust performance of AICV, and deliver a unique smart well sensor network that meets industry needs. Our main result will be the smart AICV. It measures pressure differences to determine flow rate and composition of flowing fluid. We will create new passive sensors that can collect these print data and send it acoustically to a optical fiber, which interface with a software to determine fluid composition and valve operation in real time. This enables oil companies to map fluid flows into oil reservoirs and manage them by altering the production of individuals, wells, and reducing water cut by another 10% and utilization cost by 25%.

Each year, oil fields produce 143bn M3 of unwanted gas and 76bn barrels of contaminated waste water. Ourcurrent valve controls water and gas inflow, producing 10x less waste and 25% more oil. Oil companies are asking for downwell flow data for diagnostics and process optimisation, but existing telemetry is costly and complex. Our passive acoustic sensors effectively turn every valve into an accurate multiphase flow meter, allowing operators to reduce polluting wastes by 10% and costs by 25%. We have done the major technical development, and are marketing the AICV tool for several new customers. Next year we are assumed to install the AICV in several new contries for new clients.

Our main goal is to exploit the 60% of oil that still resides in mature oilfields. Oil is still vital to Europe’s economy and new sources are scarce and often in hostile locations, making their exploitation economically and environmentally risky. InflowControl has developed a revolutionary autonomous inflow control valve (AICV) that maximises production from mature fields by stopping gas and water breakthrough during oil production. Mature fields produce 9 barrels of contaminated water for every 1 barrel of oil (76bn barrels p.a.), which need to be treated at a global cost of €420 million/day. Our AICV does not need power or external control to operate and uses fluid properties (velocity, viscosity and density) to control fluid flow, reducing water cut by 90% and increasing oil recovery rates by 25%. Our customers are looking to create ‘smart wells’, using rich data such as multiphase flow to maximise production. Our AICV is, in effect, a passive multiphase flow meter installed every few metres down well. This project will allow us to extract data from the valve, without compromising the autonomous, low-cost and reliable nature of the AICV, delivering a unique smart well sensor network meeting industry needs. Our main result will be a smart AICV. Our smart AICV measures pressure differences to determine the flow rate and composition of inflowing fluids to register breakthroughs. We will create novel passive sensors (Result 2) that can gather this pressure data and send it acoustically to an optic fibre with Bragg grating, which interfaces with a surface interrogator and software to determine fluid composition and valve operation in real time (Result 3). This allows oil companies to map fluid flows in oil reservoirs and manage these by modifying the production of individual wells, reducing water cut by an additional 10% and exploitation cost by 25%. All these prototype technologies will be patentable, with algorithms protected through secret know-how.