RESMAN tracer technology is a means of obtaining reservoir and well surveillance information without risky and costly intervention operations or cables that require extensive modifications to completion hardware.
Chemical fingerprinting
RESMAN tracers are designed to release a unique chemical fingerprint when contacted by the target fluid (oil or water). Up to 30 fingerprints are currently available for either oil or water inflow detection.
Wireless sensors in the completion
A selection of tracers is strategically placed in the completion equipment (such as sand screens or special designed carriers) across the reservoir interval. Reservoir fluids contact the tracer strips and carry the very low concentration of tracer chemical to the surface where the produced fluids are sampled.
Inflow insight
Analysis of the fluid samples identifies which fingerprints are present or not present. This information provides the operator with knowledge about which segments of the reservoir interval is flowing and insight into the proportional distribution of the inflow. Water sensitive tracers can also be deployed alongside the oil sensitive tracers that provides the location of water break-thru.
What are the typical applications?
Knowing the inflow distribution, location of water break-thru and integrity of the completion equipment is fundamental to reservoir management decision making. Information from RESMAN technology can be used in decisions about optimizing completion design, stimulation effectiveness, waterflood strategy, reservoir drainage and many other reservoir management challenges. Obtaining surveillance information from across the reservoir in today’s hostile operating conditions and complex wellbores is so costly and risky using conventional techniques that in many cases it is never obtained. RESMAN offers the operator the capability to obtain reservoir and wellbore surveillance in these environments with effectively zero risk.
Pros and cons
Distinct advantages of RESMAN’s technology:
- No intervention
- Low Cost
- Low Risk
- Very minor modifications to the well equipment to accommodate RESMAN tracer
- Life of several years
Drawbacks of RESMAN’s technology:
- Depth resolution much less than a PLT – primarily zone by zone resolution
- Limited quantitative analysis – primarily identify major and minor producing segments.