New well probe goes into service

A north-east oilfield technology firm has reached the promised land of commercialisation with its pioneering wellintervention device.

Well-Sense has earned a high six-figure sum from its FiberLine Intervention (FLI) tool’s first round of commercial projects with a number of unspecified oil majors.

FLI was deployed several times in the last six months, including for temperature sensing surveys off Malaysia and leak detection surveys on North Sea wells ahead of plugging and abandonment. The Dyceheadquartered business said its fibre-optic technology delivered data four times faster than the conventional wireline method, which uses an electrical cable to lower tools into the well.

FLI is the concept of prolific inventor Dan Purkis, Well-Sense

“The system comprises a probe similar to a missile”

technology director, and took three hours to do the job on average.

The system comprises a small probe – similar in appearance to a missile – which lays bare optical fibre in the well to instantly collect and transmit data.

FLI is also disposable, degrading completely in the well over time, which eliminates the risk of the device becoming stuck or lost.

It can be transported and operated by just one person, removing the need for a well intervention vessel and significantly reducing costs.

Well-Sense is part of the Aberdeen-based FrontRow Energy Technology Group, alongside ClearWell, Unity and Pragma.

FrontRow secured an additional £10million of investment from the Business Growth Fund earlier this year.