A UK company has exploited imaging technologies from ESA satellites in designing a camera that can take pictures through oil.

Satellite Technology sees down-hole

Proneta is a company that was founded in 1997 by John Hother to design electronic systems and sensors, and to provide consultancy services in engineering management and marketing. Hother’s team of professional engineers, physicist, and project managers specialise in bringing best-practice techniques from one industry to another – in particular, taking advantage of their expertise in the fields of electronics, avionics, radar, real-time computing and networks, and aeronautics.

In 1997, Hother contributed to an ESA-supported seminar for the aerospace and offshore oil industries. A challenge was posed to him from the offshore sector: find a way to see through the oil inside a well. Conventional video cameras are regularly used to diagnose problems in drilling, completion, and workovers. However, these cameras cannot see through the oil, so can be used only after all the oil has been flushed out first with a continuous supply of brine. The cost of flushing is huge, and the delays caused by bringing the pump and filter equipment to the rig mean that very often the use of a ‘down-hole’ camera is rejected.

Proneta decided to explore how this problem might be solved, and secured part-sponsorship from the European Commission for the initial research. A team of supporting organisations was set up: Conoco provided a set of oil samples for the use in the experiments and University College, London ran tests on the oil for Proneta in areas where the company did not have the necessary equipment.

Applying Earth-imaging in the oil industry

Through the exploratory tests, researchers at Proneta identified special characteristics of the oil. With its experience in the space industry – particularly in designing electro-optic instruments –the team knew that sensors that could penetrate oil had already been developed for the use on meteorological satellites such as ESA’s ENVISAT and ERS missions. These satellites monitor the environment, climate, and changes in sea-level.

Based on the satellite-imaging technology and the results of the oil tests, Proneta determined that not only could its camera achieve useful images through the oil, but that the equipment could also be engineered to withstand the severe environment and the tight constrain on size and bandwidth. Proneta filed patents for the new technology – but also needed to demonstrate to the oil companies that it really would work beyond paper calculations or computer modelling.

With part-sponsorship from ESA, Proneta built a rest-rig in their laboratory to produce pictures to show to oil companies and other prospective sponsors. The test-rig is working successfully, producing useable images.

The next phase for Proneta will be to construct a full-scale demonstrator, in which the camera will be shown working with real targets. A vertical tank 30 centimetres across and 3 metres high will be built and filled with crude oil. Inside the tank will be pieces of standard casing and tubulars (the targets) and the camera will be lowered inside. This set-up will allow Proneta to develop the correct optical configuration, and will be suitable for showing to prospective sponsors for the following phase. This will be down an operating oil well. During the engineering development, Proneta will be teaming up with a company that already builds conventional down-hole video cameras, and possibly a major oil and gases service company.

The resulting unit will then go on trial in wells during workover periods. Major oil companies have already offered the use of their wells, and Proneta is now actively seeking funding for the demonstrator phase.