Borehole Flow Monitoring using a Non-intrusive Passive Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS)

Abstract

Abstract Historically in-well flow measurement has been challenged by downhole power requirements and post-installation inflexibility. Distributed acoustic sensing makes it possible to monitor the acoustic field along the entire length of a standard fiber optic cable, and therefore facilitate flow monitoring without any downhole electric power requirements. Further, the distributed nature of such systems enables post-installation adaptability as the production profile evolves. Partly as a result of this flexibility, distributed acoustic sensors have now started to gain momentum as a recognized solution for in-well flow surveillance. In this paper, Silixa will present recent development work showing how distributed technology can enable high accuracy flow monitoring. Emerging results will be used to show how array processing of flow noise can be used to develop production data. Examples from the laboratory will be used to demonstrate these advanced techniques. It will be seen that advanced signal processing can be combined with knowledge concerning the physics of fluid-acoustic interactions to make determinations concerning the flow within a well. Finally, it will be shown that there exists strong promise for this upstream technology in a broad variety of well-types.