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PETROMAKS2-Stort program petroleum

Distributed fibre optic sensing for production optimization

Alternative title: Fiberoptiske distribuerte målesystemer for produksjonsoptimalisering

Awarded: NOK 16.4 mill.

During the second year, the planning of the experiments continues. Choices about fluid composition and flow rates, as well as determination of the size and other dimensions of the setup, are made in cooperation with the project's industry partners. We strive to hold the studies relevant and useful for the industry. When the experiments will be carried out in the beginning of 2022, we will gather large amounts of information through the measurements, information that will be analysed as the project moves on.

The down-hole measurement of fluid flow is key to enabling operators to optimize production, improve reservoir management and maximise field recovery. The well environment is however harsh and can limit the operative life of conventional electronic down-hole gauges. In recent years fiber optic (FO) based measurement systems have been developed and well deployments have proven this technology to be inherently robust. FO sensing is able to deliver comprehensive well data which is on the verge of making a step change in well and reservoir monitoring capability. A unique ability of FO technology is that a single fibre can capture in real-time temperature variations and the acoustic noise field, from top to bottom of the well. An overall research challenge is to understand the flow generated acoustic events in the wellbore in order to understand the response of the fibre and perform high-fidelity data interpretation of real well FO surveys. This project is a national collaboration between organisations performing research within fiber optics, signal processing, flow modelling, machine learning and petroleum. The objective is to develop methods for analysing and processing distributed measurements to support the application of FO sensing technology in oil and gas wells. The planned work packages focus on; physical experiments, numerical acoustic modelling, machine learning and method integration in a transient well flow model used to analyse real well surveys. Development and testing of models will be performed in cooperation with the industry. The project will be executed by research partners NORCE, SINTEF, UiB and UiS. One PhD student will be educated at UiB and a post-doctoral research fellow will be appointed at UiS and collaborate with Northwestern University, Illinois. Scientific results obtained will be disseminated through PhD-dissertations, presentations at international conferences, proceedings and international journals and annual workshops.

Funding scheme:

PETROMAKS2-Stort program petroleum