A section of optic fiber was on the work bench at Pinnacle’s newly expanded laboratory in northwest Houston recently and was connected to monitors. A technician was describing how the system worked. After a short time the technician turned to the monitor and replayed what he had just said, demonstrating one of the unique characteristics of fiber optics.

The technician was showing how distributed sensing uses the fiber-optic cable itself to monitor temperature, acoustics, and strain through the entire depth of the well. Since there are no downhole electronics with fiber optics, the cable can operate in temperatures up to 300°C (570°F) and pressures to 30,000 psi.

Pinnacle, a Halliburton service, offers a myriad of applications for the technology. There is an old joke about someone whose most exciting moment in life is watching grass grow or paint dry. Well, you can have just as an exciting time with fiber optics on the outside of casing watching cement set – for the lifetime of the well. That, of course, can be helpful in determining well integrity.

However, there are some more exciting uses for fiber optics such as completion, stimulation, injection, production, and well construction monitoring. The fiber optics provide a real-time view of downhole conditions without any wellbore intervention, according to Pinnacle. This technology could replace traditionally run production logs, tracer surveys, or geophones for vertical seismic profiling.

For example, an operator in the Barnett shale ran a dual-array microseismic monitoring solution along with a permanent fiber-optic line on the outside of the production casing. The fiber-optic system monitored the points of fluid entry into the reservoir in real time. The microseismic was used to compare results to the hydraulic fracture geometry, allowing the operator a better understanding of the effectiveness of the fracturing at the near-wellbore, according to Pinnacle. An operator could even tell if the fluid is going in one perforation and not another.

Fiber optics could be useful in optimizing well results by providing data for well placement and spacing recommendations. One of the really exciting applications could be in making hole using lasers. Thirty years ago, who would have thought of using fiber optics to drill wells?

At the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) 2013 in Houston on May 7, an entire session was devoted to fiber optics. A paper (OTC 23966) presented by TNO was quoted as saying, “Judging on the speed of developments witnessed today, we believe there will be a second fiber-optic sensing revolution in the oil and gas industry in the near future.”

The company listed three factors (besides cost) needed to spark the next revolution. The first is ease of installation. Problems are related to splicing methods, wet connects, and making sure perforating does not damage preinstalled fibers. The second factor involves system robustness and reliability. The third factor is the handling of the vast amount of data generated by the system.

Once those are solved, the industry will see more light at the end of the fiber-optics tunnel.