Sensornet awarded Smart Water Injector DTS contract by major Middle East NOC

ensornet, the global provider of the world’s most advanced monitoring solutions, has been awarded a contract to supply two Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) systems for smart water injectors from a major Middle East National Oil Company.

The contract, worth approximately $1.3M, involves the installation of passive inflow control devices (ICDs) which will enable an evenly distributed injection profile along the open hole horizontal section of the injector wells. The installation is scheduled to take place later this year.
The DTS systems will deliver real time data which will dramatically enhance the operator’s understanding of reservoir injectivity performance and sweep efficiency. In addition to providing crucial injectivity profiling data, the DTS systems will also be used for stimulation optimisation. Sensornet’s proprietary SureSightTM sensing cable will provide high resolution temperature measurements to continuously monitor the stimulation operation in real time. This will provide data on the targeted zones which will enable the operator to make informed decisions to adjust the stimulation program if required.

The operator intends to deploy this innovative technology on a significant number of its power water injector wells in 2009 creating considerable financial and logistical savings.
Mark Watson, Sensornet VP Middle East commented: “We are delighted to be awarded this major contract and look forward to working with the operator on this exciting project. Monitoring and understanding reservoir injectivity performance is a key issue for the operator. By providing fully distributed data, the operator is able to instantly act on results gathered, which not only reduces uncertainty about individual well performance, but will also facilitate reservoir and production engineers ability to make significant improvements in overall field reservoir management, which will ultimately provide enhanced production.”

About Sensornet Launched in 1998, Sensornet provides the world’s most advanced asset monitoring solutions, using real-time distributed temperature and strain measuring systems. Sensornet provides the complete Digital Monitoring package to the global oil and gas industry, and offers its own temporary and permanent DTS installation capability. The company is rapidly expanding and has offices based globally in Europe, North and South America, the Middle East and Asia.

Sensornet’s award winning technology is supported by a highly qualified and experienced technical, operations and management team, which has provided multi-million dollar turnkey solutions to many of the world’s leading blue-chip companies. From system engineering and design, to data interpretation services and post delivery support agreements, Sensornet is a full solution provider. www.sensornet.co.uk

Sensing Cables – Fibre Optic Sensor Cables

The fibre is the sensor

With Sensornet’s Distributed Temperature Sensing system, the fibre optic itself is the sensor and therefore great care must be taken to ensure the integrity of the fibre optic and the optical path. The quality of the fibre is essential and typically requires testing to specifications higher than the telecommunications standards. Sensornet have developed rigorous quality assurance systems to monitor and test the fibres used in sensing cables.

Versatile range of cables

The cable must be designed and manufactured with adequate protection of the distributed sensing fibre in the specific environment. Additionally, the cable must be designed to ensure that the Distributed Temperature Sensing cable has the optimum thermal conductivity. Sensornet has vast experience in designing and manufacturing cables that achieve the balance between sensitivity and protection for a range of different industrial sensing applications. This varies from the extremely rugged components used in oil wells to lightweight flexible cables designed for the dam industry that are easy to handle but can survive large compaction forces. Depending on the specific installation and environment these cables can have lifetimes of 30 years plus.

DTS Monitoring in Plants and Refineries

The thermal and chemical processes that occur within reactor vessels and columns can slowly erode and weaken the structure of the vessel. This effect can be very localised and as this weakening occurs the skin of the vessel is reduced causing a potential point of weakness/failure. This weak spot will have a temperature signature which differs from the rest of the vessel and will result in a hotspot (or cold spot depending on the process). By detecting this hotspot early on, action can be taken to prevent any accidents and minimise any downtime for the plant.

Detect hotspots in reactor vessels early to prevent any potential failures

The Sensornet distributed temperature sensor can provide such an early warning system, thus improving overall safety of the plant. The Sensornet DTS will interrogate the fibre optic sensing cable which can be attached to the outside of the vessel thus providing a full temperature profile of the vessel. Typically this cable will be installed in a helical configuration on the outside of the vessel to provide maximum coverage. Sensornet offers a number of visualisation and communication options so that the operator can easily interpret the data and also integrate the DTS into their control system. Thus in the event of an alarm the Sensornet DTS can automatically activate the control system to take action.