Application of distributed temperature measurements to estimate zonal flow rate and pressure: International Petroleum Technology Conference

Wells equipped with optic fiber Distributed Temperature Sensors (DTS) provide real-time downhole flow rate information offering an opportunity for effective production management in real-time. The downhole information can also be used to update the reservoir model, leading to a better description of the reservoir, an improved performance prediction and to a more effective, reservoir depletion strategy. Numerous publications describe smart well control and monitoring systems and improved production case histories.

Temperature measurements play important role in downhole monitoring in intelligent wells. DTS analysis is specifically important for wells with a number of production or injection intervals where the rate allocation is required for the effective reservoir performance and recovery monitoring. Distributed temperature data can be either analyzed using classical (production logging) methods of thermometry or calculated with recently developed models and software tools, the matched measured and calculated temperature profiles being used to estimate the wellbore flow rate distribution.

In this paper we will provide an overview of the currently applied distributed temperature monitoring and interpretation methods. Novel approaches for DTS data analysis measured during multi-rate well tests and for advanced completions with their complex flow paths will be presented. The approaches are mostly based on the robust, classical methods and can be extended to zonal flow rate as well as pressure calculation. Utility of the distributed data interpretation workflows will be demonstrated.

The proposed workflow can be used for zonal flow rate and pressure allocation in wells equipped with DTS. It extends the information capacity of DTS data towards more effective well and reservoir performance monitoring level.