2012 Volume 51 Issue 3 Pages 260-266
Optical fiber sensors have been tested used by the oil and gas exploration and production industry since the 1990s; however, it is only in recent years that their installation has been recognized as being of sufficient value to force incorporating them in the plans for monitoring entire fields. Of the intrinsic sensor types, single-point pressure and temperature gauges are most directly comparable with existing electrical gauges. Optical fiber gauges are consistent with usual practice, but their ability to operate at much higher temperatures and in very hostile environments makes them uniquely suitable in many oilfields and their share of gauge installations is growing.
Optical fibers are unique, however, in that they enable the use of fully distributed sensors, which measure the quantity of interest at every point of the well and continuously over time, albeit at a somewhat lower resolution of the measurand than that generally offered by point sensors. More than 1,000 wells have been monitored by distributed temperature sensors and the distributed measurement of vibration is rapidly gaining interest in the oilfield. High-temperature optics have also enabled a wide range of fluid characterization techniques to be ported to the hostile wellbore environment.
