Offshore staff
NEW ORLEANS– Halliburton has introduced a downhole fluid analysis service that the company said can identify the presence and proportions of specific fluid components using a light source and specially coated sensors.
The Integrated Computational Element service, known as ICE Core, is well suited for downhole fluid analysis, including applications in deepwater, exploration, sample validation, fluid analysis between samples, where flow assurance is an issue, when mapping water floods, when determining reservoir connectivity, when determining compositional grading of reservoir fluids, and to see if fluids are changing, Halliburton said at the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ annual meeting.
The technology works via light shining through downhole fluids and then through ICE Core sensors. Each sensor is programmed to recognize the chemical nature, or “optical fingerprint,” of a specific fluid component, such as methane, ethane, propane, aromatics, saturates, or water. Measuring the intensity of light passing through any one sensor indicates the presence and proportion of a particular chemical component within the overall fluid.
Wade Samec, senior product champion in Halliburton’s formation testing and sampling business line, said that while optical testing has been conducted in laboratories “for decades,” the capacity to receive fluid analysis results in real time could greatly reduce the time spent waiting for lab results, especially for operators in remote locations.
The company has conducted “over a dozen” field tests offshore, he said.
In addition to the six sensors now available, Halliburton researchers are working on ICE Core technology capable of recognizing fluid components such as carbon dioxide, asphaltene, resins, synthetic-based mud filtrate, and hydrogen sulfide.
The system is part of Halliburton’s proven reservoir Description Tool, or RDT tester.
10/01/2013
