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Well diagnostics breakthrough announced

TGT Oilfield Services announced the successful validation of its electromagnetic EmPulse well inspection system in high chromium tubulars in three Middle East deployments—one an operator-witnessed yard test and the other in two live wells.

By TGT Oilfield Services January 27, 2018

TGT Oilfield Services announced the successful validation of its electromagnetic EmPulse well inspection system in high chromium tubulars. In three Middle East deployments—one an operator-witnessed yard test and the other in two live wells—TGT engineers demonstrated the system can quantitatively determine the individual tubular thickness of up to four concentric barriers, even when there are high amounts of chrome in the tubulars.

"Increasing chromium content helps to protect well completions from highly-corrosive fluids, such as carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide and chloride—but high-chrome can cause serious problems for ordinary electromagnetic pipe inspection systems," said Ken Feather, TGT’s chief marketing officer. "It’s essential that operators can access integrity inspection systems that work reliably and accurately."

The increase in chrome and the resulting decrease in ferrous content causes electromagnetic (EM) signals to decay too quickly for ordinary EM inspection systems. EmPulse combines ultra-fast sensor technology with ‘time-domain’ measurement techniques to capture EM signals rapidly and accurately in a wide range of pipe materials, including those with high-chrome content. This enables operators to evaluate pipe thickness and metal loss in multiple casing strings simultaneously, ensuring long-term well performance even in the most challenging production environments.

"The ability of the technology to make measurements when facing specialized materials in certain well tubulars marks a significant breakthrough," said Simon Sparke, TGT integrity expert and coordinator of the high-chrome testing program. "We anticipate that EmPulse will be particularly applicable for the Middle East operators, and also some fields in the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea and offshore Brazil."

The technology adds considerably to the integrity security of a well by providing barrier-by-barrier visualization of the well operating envelope at the time of logging. The time-based measurements, enabling the system to quantify metal loss in up to four barriers independently and deliver highly sensitive and fast response measurements, brings with it significant advantages over frequency-based measurements offered by other systems.

The Middle East operator witnessed yard test consisted of a 28% chrome pipe with built-in mechanical defects where the high-speed EM sensor technology confirmed and correctly identified the man-made problems in a controlled environment.

The second operation took place in two live Middle East wells in a very high hydrogen sulphide gas production scenario with 28% chrome tubulars. In this case, the system again functioned as planned, and recorded the status of three well barriers. Additionally, a multi-finger caliper recording confirmed the electromagnetic results for the condition of the inner pipe.

– Edited from a TGT Oilfield Services press release by CFE Media.

Original content can be found at Oil and Gas Engineering.