SPE Journal
Volume 15, Number 4, December 2010, pp. 1089-1097

Summary

During the last several years, significant progress has been made in the use of fiber-optic technology for well and reservoir surveillance. While most effort in this field appears to be concentrated on the development of fiber-optic-based meters for temperature, pressure, and flow, comparably few publications have been made to date about the use of fiber-optic technology for monitoring deformations of well tubulars and casings.

In this article, we report on recent advances in our development of a real-time fiber-optic-based casing imager. This device is designed for continuous, high-resolution monitoring of the shape of casings or well tubulars and, therefore, enables the determination of strain imposed on the well. Small-scale and full-casing-sized laboratory tests have demonstrated that the latest generation of this system is sufficiently sensitive to detect casing deformations of less than 10°/100 ft and covers compressive and tensile axial-strain ranges from less than 0.1 to 10%. We will discuss the background technology, measurement sensitivity and strain-response characterization, as well as the scaleup work that has been performed to date. Our article also includes an overview of field-test results and illustrates how real-time deformation monitoring could form a significant component of reservoir-surveillance strategies.

© 2010. Society of Petroleum Engineers

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History

• Original manuscript received: 27 July 2007
• Meeting paper published: 12 November 2007
• Revised manuscript received: 28 July 2009
• Manuscript approved: 21 August 2009
• Published online: 29 July 2010
• Version of record: 2 December 2010