scholarly journals Monitoring cold water injections for reservoir characterization using a permanent fiber optic installation in a geothermal production well in the Southern German Molasse Basin

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Schölderle ◽  
Martin Lipus ◽  
Daniela Pfrang ◽  
Thomas Reinsch ◽  
Sven Haberer ◽  
...  

AbstractFiber optic sensing has gained importance for wellbore monitoring and reservoir characterization in geothermal fields as it allows continuous, spatially highly resolved measurements. Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) and distributed temperature sensing (DTS) technologies, among others, enable monitoring of flow regimes and heat transport inside the wellbore to describe the dynamical behavior of the reservoir. The technically challenging installation of a permanent fiber optic monitoring system in a geothermal production well over the entire wellbore length was conducted for the first time at the geothermal site Schäftlarnstraße in Munich, Germany. One cable with two DAS fibers, two DTS fibers, and one fiber for a downhole fiber optic pressure/temperature gauge were clamped to ¾-in. sucker rods and installed to 3.7 km measured depth to collect data from the wellbore after drilling, during testing, and during operations. We present DTS profiles during 3 months of well shut-in and show the results of two cold water injection tests conducted to localize inflow zones in the reservoir and to test the performance of the fiber optic setup. A vertical displacement in temperature peaks of approximately 1.5 m was observed during the injection tests, presumably resulting from thermal contraction of the sucker rod–cable setup. This was verified by analyzing the strain information from the DAS records over 1 h of warm-back after cold water injection with the calculated theoretical thermal contraction of DTS of the same period. We further verified the flowmeter measurements with a gradient velocity analysis of DTS profiles during injection. Intake to the major inflow zone was estimated to 93.5% for the first injection test, respective 94.0% for the second, intake of flowmeter was calculated to 92.0% for the same zone. Those values are confirmed by analyzing DTS profiles during the warm-back period after the well was shut.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin P. Lipus ◽  
Felix Schölderle ◽  
Thomas Reinsch ◽  
Christopher Wollin ◽  
Charlotte M. Krawczyk ◽  
...  

Abstract. Fiber-optic distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) data finds many applications in wellbore monitoring such as e.g. flow monitoring, formation evaluation, and well integrity studies. For horizontal or highly deviated wells, wellbore fiber-optic installations can be conducted by mounting the sensing cable to a rigid structure (casing/tubing) which allows for a controlled landing of the cable. We analyze a cold-water injection phase in a geothermal well with a 3.6 km long fiber-optic installation mounted to a ¾” sucker-rod by using both DAS and distributed temperature sensing (DTS) data. During cold-water injection, we observe distinct vibrational events (shock waves) which originate in the reservoir interval and migrate up- and downwards. We use temperature differences from the DTS data to determine the theoretical thermal contraction and integrated DAS data to estimate the actual deformation of the rod construction. The results suggest that the rod experiences thermal stresses along the installation length – partly in the compressional and partly in the extensional regime. We find strong evidence that the observed vibrational events originate from the release of the thermal stresses when the friction of the rod against the borehole wall is overcome. Within this study, we show the influence of temperature changes on the acquisition of distributed acoustic/strain sensing data along a fiber-optic cable suspended along a rigid but freely hanging rod. We show that observed vibrational events do not necessarily originate from induced seismicity in the reservoir, but instead, can originate from stick-slip behavior of the rod construction that holds the measurement equipment.


Geophysics ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. F283-F292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murtaza Y. Gulamali ◽  
Eli Leinov ◽  
Matthew D. Jackson

The injection of cold water into a hydrocarbon reservoir containing relatively warmer, more saline formation brine may generate self-potential anomalies as a result of electrokinetic, thermoelectric, and/or electrochemical effects. We have numerically assessed the relative contributions of these effects to the overall self-potential signal generated during oil production in a simple hydrocarbon reservoir model. Our aim was to determine if measurements of self-potential at a production well can be used to detect the movement of water toward the well. The coupling coefficients for the electrochemical and thermoelectric potentials are uncertain, so we considered four different models for them. We also investigated the effect of altering the salinities of the formation and injected brines. We found that the electrokinetic potential peaked at the location of the saturation front (reaching values of 0.2 mV even for the most saline brine considered). Moreover, the value at the production well increased as the front approached the well, exceeding the noise level (∼ 0.1 mV). Thermoelectric effects gave rise to larger potentials in the reservoir (∼10 mV), but values at the well were negligible [Formula: see text] until after water breakthrough because of the lag in the temperature front relative to the saturation front. Electrochemical potentials were smaller in magnitude than thermoelectric potentials in the reservoir but were measurable [Formula: see text] at the well because the salinity front was closely associated with the saturation front. When the formation brine was less saline (∼1 mol/liter), electrokinetic effects dominated; at higher salinities (∼5 mol/liter), electrochemical effects were significant. We concluded that the measurement of self-potential signals in a production well may be used to monitor the movement of water in hydrocarbon reservoirs during production, but further research is required to understand the thermoelectric and electrochemical coupling coefficients in partially saturated porous media.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Gomes ◽  
Jane Mason ◽  
Graham Edmonstone

This paper highlights the application of downhole fiber optic (FO) distributed temperature sensing (DTS) measurements for well and reservoir management applications: 1) Wellbore water injectivity profiling. 2) Mapping of injection water movement in an underlying reservoir. The U.A.E. field in question is an elongated anticline containing several stacked carbonate oil bearing reservoirs (Figure 1). Reservoir A, where two DTS monitored, peripheral horizontal water injectors (Y-1 and Y-2) were drilled, is less developed and tighter than the immediately underlying, more prolific Reservoir B with 40 years of oil production and water injection history. Reservoirs A and B are of Lower Cretaceous age, limestone fabrics made up of several 4th order cycles, subdivided by several thin intra dense, 2-5 ft thick stylolitic intervals within the reservoir zones. Between Reservoir A and Reservoir B there is a dense limestone interval (30-50 ft), referred as dense layer in the Figure 1 well sections.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Al-Hashemi ◽  
Daria Spivakovskaya ◽  
Evert Moes ◽  
Peter in ‘t Panhuis ◽  
Gijs Hemink ◽  
...  

Abstract Fiber Optic Systems, such as Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS), have been used for wellbore surveillance for more than two decades. One of the traditional applications of DTS is injectivity profiling, both for hydraulically fractured and non-fractured wells. There is a long history of determining injectivity profiles using temperature profiles, usually by analyzing warm-back data with largely pure heat conduction models or by employing a so-called "hot-slug" approach that requires tracking of a temperature transient that arises at the onset of injection. In many of these attempts there is no analysis performed for the key influencing physical factors that could create significant ambiguity in the interpretation results. Among such factors we will consider in detail is the possible impact of cross-flow during the early warm-back stage, but also the temperature transient signal that is related to the location of the fiber-optic sensing cable behind the casing when the fast transient data are used for interpretation such as the "hot slug" during re-injection. In this paper it will be shown that despite all such potential complications, the high frequency and quality of the transient data that can be obtained from a continuous DTS measurement allow for a highly reliable and robust evaluation of the injectivity profile. The well-known challenge of the ambiguity of the interpretation, produced by the interpretation methods that are conventionally used, is overcome using the innovative "Pressure Rate Temperature Transient Analysis" method that takes maximum use of the complete DTS transient data set and all other available data at the level of the model-based interpretation. This method is based on conversion of field measurements into injectivity profiles taking into account the uncertainty in different parts of the data set, which includes the specifics of the DTS deployment, the uncertainty in surface flow rates, and possible data gaps in the history of the well. Several case studies will be discussed where this approach was applied to water injection wells. For the analysis, the re-injection and warmback DTS transient temperature measurements were taken from across the sandface. Furthermore, for comparison, injection profiles were also recorded by conventional PLTs in parallel. This case study will focus mostly on the advanced interpretation opportunities and the challenges related to crossflow through the wellbore during the warm-back phase, related to reservoir pressure dynamics, and finally related to the impact of the method of DTS deployment. In addition to describing the interpretation methodology, this paper will also show the final comparison of the fiber-optic evaluation with the interpretation obtained from the reference PLTs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (20) ◽  
pp. eabe7136
Author(s):  
Robert Law ◽  
Poul Christoffersen ◽  
Bryn Hubbard ◽  
Samuel H. Doyle ◽  
Thomas R. Chudley ◽  
...  

Measurements of ice temperature provide crucial constraints on ice viscosity and the thermodynamic processes occurring within a glacier. However, such measurements are presently limited by a small number of relatively coarse-spatial-resolution borehole records, especially for ice sheets. Here, we advance our understanding of glacier thermodynamics with an exceptionally high-vertical-resolution (~0.65 m), distributed-fiber-optic temperature-sensing profile from a 1043-m borehole drilled to the base of Sermeq Kujalleq (Store Glacier), Greenland. We report substantial but isolated strain heating within interglacial-phase ice at 208 to 242 m depth together with strongly heterogeneous ice deformation in glacial-phase ice below 889 m. We also observe a high-strain interface between glacial- and interglacial-phase ice and a 73-m-thick temperate basal layer, interpreted as locally formed and important for the glacier’s fast motion. These findings demonstrate notable spatial heterogeneity, both vertically and at the catchment scale, in the conditions facilitating the fast motion of marine-terminating glaciers in Greenland.


Ground Water ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 51 (5) ◽  
pp. 670-678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew W. Becker ◽  
Brian Bauer ◽  
Adam Hutchinson

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 649
Author(s):  
Xiaolin Huan ◽  
Gao Xu ◽  
Yi Zhang ◽  
Feng Sun ◽  
Shifeng Xue

For processes such as water injection in deep geothermal production, heat transfer and fluid flow are coupled and affect one another, which leads to numerous challenges in wellbore structure safety. Due to complicated wellbore structures, consisting of casing, cement sheaths, and formations under high temperature, pressure, and in situ stress, the effects of thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) coupling are crucial for the instability control of geothermal wellbores. A THM-coupled model was developed to describe the thermal, fluid, and mechanical behavior of the casing, cement sheath, and geological environment around the geothermal wellbore. The results show that a significant disturbance of effective stress occurred mainly due to the excess pore pressure and temperature changes during cold water injection. The effective stress gradually propagated to the far-field and disrupted the integrity of the wellbore structure. A serious thermal stress concentration occurred at the junction of the cased-hole and open-hole section. When the temperature difference between the injected water and the formation was up to 160 °C, the maximum hoop tensile stress in the granite formation reached up to 43.7 MPa, as high as twice the tensile strength, which may increase the risk of collapse or rupture of the wellbore structure. The tensile radial stress, with a maximum of 31.9 MPa concentrated at the interface between the casing and cement sheath, can cause the debonding of the cementing sheath. This study provides a reference for both the prediction of THM responses and the design of drilling fluid density in geothermal development.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulaziz Al-Qasim ◽  
Sharidah Alabduh ◽  
Muhannad Alabdullateef ◽  
Mutaz Alsubhi

Abstract Fiber-optic sensing (FOS) technology is gradually becoming a pervasive tool in the monitoring and surveillance toolkit for reservoir engineers. Traditionally, sensing with fiber optic technology in the form of distributed temperature sensing (DTS) or distributed acoustic sensing (DAS), and most recently distributed strain sensing (DSS), distributed flow sensing (DFS) and distributed pressure sensing (DPS) were done with the fiber being permanently clamped either behind the casing or production tubing. Distributed chemical sensing (DCS) is still in the development phase. The emergence of the composite carbon-rod (CCR) system that can be easily deployed in and out of a well, similar to wireline logging, has opened up a vista of possibilities to obtain many FOS measurements in any well without prior fiber-optic installation. Currently, combinations of distributed FOS data are being used for injection management, well integrity monitoring, well stimulation and production performance optimization, thermal recovery management, etc. Is it possible to integrate many of the distributed FOS measurements in the CCR or a hybrid combination with wireline to obtain multiple measurements with one FOS cable? Each one of FOS has its own use to get certain data, or combination of FOS can be used to make a further interpretation. This paper reviews the state of the art of the FOS technology and the gamut of current different applications of FOS data in the oil and gas (upstream) industry. We present some results of traditional FOS measurements for well integrity monitoring, assessing production and injection flow profile, cross flow behind casing, etc. We propose some nontraditional applications of the technology and suggest a few ways through. Which the technology can be deployed for obtaining some key reservoir description and dynamics data for reservoir performance optimization.


2020 ◽  
pp. 57-60
Author(s):  
K.I. Mustafaev ◽  
◽  
◽  

The production of residual oil reserves in the fields being in a long-term exploitation is of current interest. The extraction of residual oil in such fields was cost-effective and simple technological process and is always hot topic for researchers. Oil wells become flooded in the course of time. The appearance of water shows in production wells in the field development and operation is basically negative occurrence and requires severe control. Namely for this reason, the studies were oriented, foremost, to the prevention of water shows in production well and the elimination of its complications as well. The paper discusses the ways of reflux efficiency increase during long-term exploitation and at the final stages of development to prevent the irrigation and water use in production wells.


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