A Review of Distributed Fiber--optic Sensing in the Oil and Gas Industry

Abstract

Fiberoptic sensors have been widely deployed in various applications, and their use has gradually increased since the 1980s. Distributed fiberoptic sensors, which enable continuous and realtime measurements along the entire length of an optical fiber cable, have undergone significant improvements in underlying industries. In the oil and gas industry, distributed fiber-optic sensors can provide significantly valuable information throughout the life cycle of a well and can monitor pipelines transporting hydrocarbons over great distances. Here, we review the deployment of fiberoptic Rayleighbased distributed acoustic sensing (DAS), Ramanbased distributed temperature sensing (DTS), and Brillouinbased distributed temperature and strain sensing (DTSS) in the oil and gas industry. In particular, we describe the operation principle and basic experimental setups of the DAS, DTS, and DTSS, highlighting their applications in the upstream, midstream, and downstream sector of the oil and gas industry. We further developed a prototype of a fiberoptic hybrid DASDTS system that simultaneously measures vibration and temperature along a multimode ber (MMF). The reported hybrid sensing system was tested in an operational oil well. This work also discusses the challenges that might hinder the growth of the distributed fiber-optic sensing market in the petroleum industry, and we further point out the future directions of related research.