Fiber Optic Enabled Coiled Tubing for Production Services (FOECT PS) was commercialized in 2010 as the first optical telemetry system in Schlumberger compatible with Wireline tools. FOECT PS operates using a conveyance consisting of multiple optical fibers placed inside Coiled Tubing. The communication via optical fiber allows establishing real time telemetry without the need of a copper cable conveyance. The power is provided to the downhole tools using downhole high temperature batteries. All these functionalities have been successfully tested up to 150 degC, and can operate with up to 14 km of optical fiber. Additionally, the surface equipment has been simplified by eliminating the Wireline acquisition, replaced in FOECT PS with a small surface acquisition module.
Three years after commercialization, FOECT PS has been deployed in more than ten countries and continues to provide high-quality, real time production logging data. This deployment time has allowed Schlumberger to prove the main benefits of the system, such as the efficiency when combining with the FOECT PTC (Pressure, Temperature, CCL) service and the integration with Distributed Temperature Survey (DTS) measurement. The field experience has also provided feedback about the system that has become the input for potential future improvements and extensions.
The current paper will cover the overview of the system and development challenges, as well as the field benefits, job data and return of experience.
