|
Efforts to build the intelligent oil field have been underway for more than a decade. Advances have been made on a number of fronts, driven by real needs, perceived future needs and notable failures. No driver has been more visible than the Macondo incident.
For decades prior to that deepwater GOM disaster, industry had worked to improve well integrity.
Following Macondo, that work swiftly intersected work being done on intelligent technologies, both within and outside the industry. The result is a group of projects on intelligent well integrity that should mature in 2015, or soon thereafter, and significantly improve wellbore integrity throughout a well’s life cycle. Below are brief discussions of several promising projects undertaken with funding from the National Energy Technology Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Intelligent Casing-Intelligent Formation Telemetry (ICIFT) System. This project aims to identify reliable technologies that might make production casing “intelligent,” allow its safe, effective deployment, and ensure highly reliable and effective data transmission to the surface. The project focuses on developing an “intelligent” formation telemetry system from points external to the casing, to complement “intelligent” casing telemetry systems (i.e., an Intelligent Casing-Intelligent Formation Telemetry (ICIFT) System), to provide a measurement system capable of recording data across all points of the producing zone. The work includes:
- Literature survey and background studies on various borehole telemetry systems and methods
- Assessment of borehole telemetry system components
- Design and development of RFID/sensor prototypes for “intelligent” formation telemetry systems
- Laboratory testing of prototypes and telemetry networks in rock formations, and drilling and completion fluids.
Intelligent cement / Measuring electrical resistivity in “smart” cement. This ongoing project, undertaken by the University of Houston with partner Baker Hughes, through the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA), is developing technology for real-time monitoring of cement installation and performance during the service lives of deepwater wells. In this study, various technologies will be used to develop “smart” drilling mud and cementing slurry with enhanced sensing properties, so that they can be deployed for real-time monitoring during a deepwater well’s installation and entire service life.
The smart drilling mud and cement slurry will be modified, such that its short-term and long-term piezoresistive characteristics reflect the composition, chemical reactions and surrounding environment (temperature and pressure) that influence changes in internal stresses. Changes in stress, strain and/or temperature will cause a change in the electrical resistivity of the smart fluid, reflecting the cement slurry condition in the borehole and measuring, for example, the length of cement supporting the casing.
Intelligent cement / Nano impregnated cement. Honolulu-based Oceanit Laboratories Inc., supported by DOE funding, is exploring well applications for its nanotechnology concrete mix that was created as a means for strengthening material used in buildings, bridges and roads.
Companies are working on ways to incorporate carbon nanotubes into concrete. In addition to increasing toughness, the nanotubes, which are thousands of times thinner than a human hair, are highly conductive. That means that they could be used to create a kind of nervous system within concrete that could be used to detect cracking and weaknesses in structures.
Oceanit has worked to solve a key problem—how to homogeneously mix the tiny nanotubes into a thick fluid, such as cement. The company is seeking to patent a process in which nanotubes are suspended in a liquid concentrate that is added to the water used to make cement.
“The carbon nanotube mixture we’re patenting acts like a spider web within the concrete,” said Oceanit spokesman Ian Kitajima. “Stresses in the concrete material are sensed by this internal web. Small pulses of electricity are sent through this nano-web within the concrete. Changes in the web reflect changes in cement structure, which affects the return signal that could be used to determine the health of a building.”
Through the current DOE partnership, Oceanit is studying deepwater and problematic well cementing applications.
Intelligent BOP RAM actuation sensor system. Developing a novel, auto-compensated sensor system for accurately detecting the presence of drill collars, tool joints and other un-shearable objects in the vicinity of BOP rams is the goal of principal investigator GE Global Research in this RPSEA project.
Phase 1 of this project includes: 1) developing the sensor and signal conditioning; 2) developing sensor error-correction concepts; and 3) evaluating mechanical and software integration of sensors with the BOP. Phase 2 includes: 1) detailed sensor system design; 2) prototype construction; and 3) prototype testing.
The sensor system will provide a warning signal to the operator, if an unshearable object is detected, enabling him to take the correct action in response to an event requiring actuation of the rams.
|
