Measuring and testing – Probe or probe mounting
Reexamination Certificate
2002-12-04
2004-11-16
Noland, Thomas P. (Department: 2856)
Measuring and testing
Probe or probe mounting
C250S227110, C385S012000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06817257
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to apparatus for the remote measurement of physical parameters in which the advantages of optical fibre cables and optical fibre sensors are exploited for use within the oil industry. The invention has important applications for monitoring oil and gas reservoirs, for stack monitoring and monitoring within refineries.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
As oil and gas reserves have been consumed over the years, the extraction of the oil and gas has become increasingly more difficult under more demanding conditions. Accordingly, there is a need for the reserves to be monitored to a higher quality than hitherto. The potential payback is reducing operating costs and increasing the yield from individual reservoirs. The invention also impacts on operational and environmental safety.
There is a growing recognition that continuous dynamic sampling of downhole conditions within oil wells can generate dynamic data streams that can be processed and turned into valuable new information. Modern computer aided visualisation techniques make it much easier for production and reservoir management teams to detect and interpret changes in wellbore conditions, near-wellbore conditions and even changes in the reservoir further away from the immediate wellbore. This information can be fed back into computer models of the reservoir that are used to simulate the oil production system. These reservoir models include geologic data, seismic data, and assumptions based on past logging and exploration activity and shut-in tests on wells. By expanding the number of parameters that are sampled and by increasing the frequency of sampling, the model can be improved to reveal finer details of the reservoir properties. The benefits of this improved information are that asset managers are better positioned to anticipate degradation in the well structure, to anticipate water and gas coning and to identify regions of the reservoir where oil is left behind.
GB-A-2284257 relates to apparatus for the remote measurement of physical parameters. Experience over many installations has shown that the technique is not always reliable especially when deploying optical fibre sensors through steel hydraulic control lines in oil wells where the steel hydraulic control lines contain many bends and curves. The problem is that optical fibre cables can become stalled in the control line which can lead to tangling and possible destruction of the optical fibre cable in the hydraulic control line.
An aim of the present invention is to improve on known apparatus by improving the reliability of the apparatus needed to install and retrieve an optical fibre sensor for the measurement of physical parameters.
According to a non-limiting embodiment of the present invention, there is provided apparatus for the remote measurement of physical parameters, which apparatus comprises a sensor for sensing one or more physical parameters, sensor instrumentation for interrogating the sensor and making a measurement, a cable for extending between the sensor and the sensor instrumentation, a conduit for extending to a measurement location and which is of such a cross-sectional size that it is able to accept the cable and the sensor, and cable installation means for installing the sensor and the cable through the conduit and for placing the sensor at the measurement location, the cable installation means being such that it includes means for propelling a fluid along the conduit, and the conduit being such that it preferably contains a lead-in section for providing sufficient fluid drag on the cable as it enters the conduit from the cable installation means to ensure that the sensor is able to be transported through the conduit. The means for propelling the fluid along the conduit can include any such known apparatus, as for example a pump, a venturi, gravity, and a compressor.
The sensor can be one or more optical fibre sensors. These optical fibre sensors can be sensors for measuring temperature, distributed temperature, pressure, acoustic energy, electric current, magnetic field, electric field, or a combination thereof.
The sensor can be a flow sensor based on combining the outputs from more than one sensor and applying an algorithm to estimate flow.
The sensor can be an array of optical fibre sensors configured on the same optical fibre. The array of optical fibre sensors can include a plurality of optical fibre Bragg gratings each returning a signal whose wavelength varies with applied temperature, pressure or strain. The array of optical fibre sensors can be interrogated by time division multiplexing, wavelength division multiplexing or a combination of time division multiplexing and wavelength division multiplexing.
The array of optical fibre sensors can include a plurality of optical fibre interferometers constructed from pairs of optical fibre Bragg gratings where each optical fibre Bragg grating within any pair of optical fibre Bragg gratings reflects light at substantially the same wavelength. The array of optical fibre sensors can be interrogated using time division multiplexing, wavelength division multiplexing, coherent division multiplexing or a combination of all three multiplexing techniques.
The sensor can be a distributed sensor, wherein the distributed sensor provides more than one measurement along its length. The distributed sensor can be a distributed temperature sensor, a distributed pressure sensor or a distributed strain sensor. The distributed sensor can be a distributed optical fibre sensor based on the measurement of a combination of Raleigh scattering, Raman scattering or Brillouin scattering.
Examples of sensor instrumentation include the DTS 80 (the distributed sensor readout system manufactured by York Sensors), instrumentation for measuring the strain on an optical fibre Bragg grating, an optical interferometer measurement system for measuring acoustic energy, a polarimetric sensor measurement system, or a Brillouin scattering measurement read out system, or any other appropriate sensor instrumentation system as is described in many of the conferences on optical fibre sensor systems worldwide.
The cable can be one or more optical fibre cables, and is preferably a carbon coated optical fiber.
The means for propelling a fluid can be a hydraulic pump.
The means for propelling a fluid can be a gas bottle or a compressor.
The conduit can be high-pressure tubing with an inside diameter and pressure rating to make it suitable for deploying sensors to remote locations.
The conduit can be steel hydraulic control line commonly used in the oil and gas industry having an external diameter of ⅛″ to ¾″ (3 mm to 19 mm). Alternatively, the conduit can be coiled tubing commonly used in the oil and gas industry having an external diameter of ¾″ to 2″ (19 mm to 50 mm) or greater.
The conduit can have a cross-sectional size that it is able to accept one or more cables and one or more sensors.
A pressure communication port can be connected to the conduit in order to communicate pressure from outside the conduit to a pressure sensor within the conduit. The pressure communication port can be an orifice or a valve.
A plurality of pressure communication ports can be connected to the conduit in order to communicate pressure from outside the conduit to either a single pressure sensor, a plurality of pressure sensors or to a distributed pressure sensor within the conduit. It can be desirable that flow of fluids within the conduit is prevented during pressure measurements. This can be achieved by sealing sections of the conduit or by controlling the plurality of pressure communication ports such that only one of the plurality of pressure communication ports is open at any one time.
The conduit can be a compound structure that includes an external wall of a rigid nature but with perforations that allow fluid pressure communication and an inner lining that is flexible and capable of accurately transmitting the external fluid pressure to the fluid inside the conduit. Th
Kluth Erhard Luther Edgar
Varnham Malcolm Paul
Castano Jaime A.
Echols Brigitte J.
Kanak Wayne I.
Noland Thomas P.
Sensor Dynamics Limited
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