Flow Monitoring in Oil and Gas Wells Using Fiber Optic Sensors

Speaker: Onur Fidaner, Ph.D.
Affiliation: CEO, Rigoras Inc.

Abstract:  Fiber Optic Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) technology has been used in an increasing number of industrial applications to detect acoustic signals from various components and process this data to obtain real-time, actionable information. In this talk we focus on multiphase flow rate measurements in oil and gas wells using fiber optic sensors.  DAS data and flow in the wellbore are related through multiple stages of physical relationships that depend on various parameters related to formation, wellbore, fluid flow, and optical fiber.  Using a series of analytical relationships, we first develop a forward model that relates multiphase flow rates and two-phase flow patterns in the wellbore to the DAS data in the optical fiber. Subsequently, we discuss an inverse problem solving strategy that processes DAS data efficiently to estimate flow parameters accurately. The inverse model utilizes the wavelet transform and multi-resolution analysis to preprocess DAS data and determine the input features for an artificial neural network model that is used to estimate wellbore flow parameters. The inverse model allows us to analyze DAS data in real time, which can be a daunting task considering a single well can produce terabytes of data in a couple of hours during hydraulic fracturing. We expect our technology to allow oil and gas companies to improve their efficiency, come up with more informed operational decisions, and save millions of dollars by reducing costs.

Biography:  Onur Fidaner received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2007. Upon graduation he worked for Solar Junction Corporation, where he was the co-investigator of the world-record, 44.1% efficiency CPV solar cell. More recently, he is the founder and CEO of Rigoras Inc, which provides data science solutions for oil and gas companies. He is also a co-founder of Inpro Medical in the Texas Medical Center, developing wearable technologies for healthcare applications. Dr. Fidaner is the recipient of OSA Best Paper Award and Baylor College of Medicine DoSI Challenge Award.

For more information, contact Prof. Aydogan Ozcan (ozcan@ucla.edu)

Date/Time:
Date(s) - Oct 20, 2017
11:00 am - 12:30 pm

Location:
E-IV Tesla Room #53-125
420 Westwood Plaza - 5th Flr., Los Angeles CA 90095