Real-time Well Monitoring

For many operators, knowing when a well starts to produce water and when the water cut changes is the most important production control parameter, in addition to wellhead pressure and temperature.

There are a number of potential causes why a well suddenly starts to produce more water, including:

• Casing/tubing leaks
• Water coning
• Fractures/faults between injector or producer
• Fractures/faults from water layer to producing oil layer

In order to control or minimize the impact of any of these problems, the primary condition is knowing that something just happened.

However, most people don’t want to buy a full toolbox if they only need a screwdriver. Similarly, installing a dedicated water cut meter at each well has a much lower cost/benefit break-even point than installing a full-fledged multiphase meter just to monitor water production.

Real-time monitoring of each well allows immediate notification when production changes, as opposed to periodic or mobile well testing, where it may takes weeks or months from a change occurs until a well test report reveals that there was a change.

The Sentech Water Cut Meter can provide extremely sensitive detection of the very first traces of water from a well (as little as 0.001% water in lab tests).

As the well matures and produced water becomes inevitable, the Sentech Water Cut Meter can measure 0 – 100% water (as a fraction of total volume) with GVFs from 0 – 90% and higher.