IMAGING THROUGH CRUDE OIL

Four oil companies - Shell, BP, Amerada Hess & Chevron - are sponsoring our Joint Industry Project to
	build a demonstration imager that can see through crude oil
	use it to explore the capabilities of this novel technology

Meanwhile, the key patent has been granted in the UK and US, greatly strengthening our position.
We're also planning new variants of this technology beyond the original downhole application illustrated.

The European Commission and the European Space Agency provided seed-corn funds to help finance the proof-of-concept. This was a great success, achieving high-resolution images through crude oil (courtesy of Conoco), and convincing the oil companies to invest.

Our discussions with oil operators, service companies and tool manufacturers indicate a wide range of applications in wells, pipelines and refineries.

Subsequent derivatives of this technology will be applied to:
	In-situ visualisation of production flow in horizontal wells
	Inspection of pipelines and refinery pipework, without draining / flushing
	Detecting onset of waxing in production wells, umbilicals & pipelines
	Eyes for tractors and downhole robotic tools

.We have constructed two demonstrator imagers in practical sideways-viewing and downwards-looking tool configurations. Both units have been successfully tested, producing images of real hardware immersed in crude oil supplied by the industry sponsors. The images demonstrate the unique ability of the tool to provide clear pictures of immersed objects showing fine surface detail and texture.

With this new technology, we are now able to provide real-time video pictures of events happening within a body of crude oil.

Two technical papers have now been published by the SPE on this technology, "Imaging through Crude Oil with High Resolution, Optically" and " Seeing Through Crude Oil - Results from Demonstrator"

In addition, the European Space Agency (ESA) published one summary

and ChevronTexaco published another