The 14th Formation Evaluation Symposium of Japan, September 29-30, 2008

TEMPERATURE TRANSIENT MONITORING USING

THE DISTRIBUTED TEMPERTURE SENSING (DTS) SYSTEM DURING
THE CEMENT CURING PROCESS
Naoki Sakiyama1, Yoko Morikami1, Toru Ikegami1, Vyacheslav Pimenov2, Valery Shako2,
Masafumi Fukuhara2, and Kasumi Fujii3
1.

Schlumberger K.K.
Schlumberger Moscow Research
3.
Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation
2.

areas such as permafrost area and gas-hydrate bearing

formation. While simulation tools have been developed
to predict actual thermal behavior in downhole during
the cement curing process, not many technical examples
of in-situ temperature measurement are known.
Dillenbeck and Mombourquette conducted real-time
temperature measurement to monitor the actual cement
hydration process in several wells by an electrical
temperature sensor installed at a certain depth in the
annular space. They reported that the standardized API
table would not always give the actual bottomhole
temperature (Dillenbeck and Mombourquette, 2001).
Henninges, et al conducted temperature measurement in
Mallik site where permafrost and gas-hydrate formation
exist. They observed disturbed temperature distribution
after the cementing process using DTS technique
(Henninges, et al., 2005). In this point, it can be an
essential process to conduct in-situ monitoring of the
curing cement by means of the temperature measurement
especially for the temperature-sensitive formation.

This paper was selected for presentation by the JFES program committee
following the review of abstract submitted by author(s).

ABSTRACT
A downhole temperature measurement using the
distributed temperature sensing (DTS) technique has
been conducted to monitor the heat released from the
curing cement along casings in a research well for
JOGMEC/NRCAN/AURORA Mallik gas hydrate
production program. The DTS temperature indicated a
position of the cement top that was close to the one
estimated from a cement bond log. Modeling studies
have been also conducted to understand two of the
characteristic thermal behaviors in downhole. One is the
correlation between the hole size and spatial temperature
variation. The other is dynamic temperature change as a
function of time. The simulation results roughly
reproduce measured temperature behaviors after the
adjustment of some parameters estimated from the
laboratory
experiment.
These
results
suggest
effectiveness of the time-lapse DTS measurement for
monitoring of the curing cement to understand the actual
hydration time, thermal impact on temperature-sensitive
formations such as in arctic fields, and validation of the
chemical compound of cement slurry.

We report, here, the result of a DTS temperature

measurement for over 38 hours from the beginning of the
cement injection into the research well for
JOGMEC/NRCAN/AURORA Mallik gas hydrate
production program (Numasawa, et al., 2008). The
measurement was taken in the frame of the production
monitoring program (Fujii, et al., 2008). The
comprehensive research results of geologic and
geothermal property in the Mallik field are summarized
(Dallimore and Collett, 2005). The capabilities of the
time-lapse DTS technique, with its wide spatial
measurement range, enabled us to monitor the dynamic
temperature behavior during the curing process of the
injected cement.

INTRODUCTION
A cementing process for the sake of the zonal isolation in
wellbore of oil, gas, and water wells is one of the most
vital processes in the lives of wells. Several technologies
have been developed to accomplish the primary
cementing (Nelson and Guillot, 2006). The cement bond
log (CBL) has been a useful technique to quantitatively
evaluate the bonding quality between casings and cement.
Although the effectiveness of this conventional logging
is well known, it is basically an intervention technique,
so that one is required to wait until the hydration of the
cement is complete before running the tools.

DATA ACQUISITION
DTS technology resorts to the principle of the optical
time domain reflectometry (OTDR) method with the use
of fiber sensors (Carnahan, et al., 1999). Our optical
fiber sensors in the cable protected by the armor wires
were installed behind 9 5/8-in. casing from the surface to

Information about the cementing process is thought to be

important insight for the efficient well operation. It also
offers the opportunity to evaluate the environmental
impact of the released heat on temperature-sensitive

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The 14th Formation Evaluation Symposium of Japan, September 29-30, 2008

1055 mKB which fully covers the permafrost zone. The

measurement has been conducted by the single ended
fiber with +/-1.5C accuracy. The obtained data were
averaged every 390 seconds to achieve 0.1C
temperature resolution. The depth data was obtained
every 0.5 m with 1 m resolution.

770 mKB to about 900 mKB. The highest downhole

temperature is recorded in this section where one can see
the white contrast in Figure 1. DTS temperature in this
section was continuously showing high value during the
measurements after the first temperature peak. This
temperature behavior is different from one in Zone 2.

The DTS measurement started just before the first

cement slurry was injected. The two types of the slurry
were injected one by one into the research well. Here we
call them lead and tail cement in the order of the injected
timing. Their properties were optimized to minimize the
mechanical impact on the formation by lowering the
specific gravity. The lead cement was designed to be able
to cure under relatively low temperature.

DISCUSSION
We discuss, here, two of major features of downhole
thermal behavior observed in Figure 1.

RESULTS
The obtained 2D image of the DTS temperature is shown
in the right side of Figure 1. The whitish color is
corresponding to higher temperatures up to 30C, and the
blackish color indicates lower temperatures, down to
negative values. The left side of Figure 1 indicates a
schematic of the cement distribution in the well based on
the actual measure by a drill bit and wireline logs. This
condition was continued from t = 2~3 h to t 33 h (here,
t represents a relative time from the beginning of the
measurement). We can see several thermal behaviors
from Figure 1.

Figure 1: (Left) a schematic condition of the

injected cement until 33 h after the beginning of
the pumping. (Right) DTS temperature as a
function of time. A contrast bar in right indicates
a corresponding temperature from -5 oC to 30 oC.

Zone 1: Mud filled casing and annulus (from the surface

to 269 mKB) No active heat source exists where the
casing and annulus are filled with the mud. Temperature
transient in this section shows a small peak centered at t
< 2 h, which may be attributed to the initial temperature
of the injected mud. After this peak, temperature kept
continuously decreasing to negative temperature. The
boundary location between the mud and tail in the casing
was estimated to be at 269 mKB when the drill bit was
tagged at this position. A cement top location estimated
from the DTS temperature contrast well agrees with that
actual measure.

Large spatial temperature variation at around the cement

top in annular space at zone 3 Zone 3, where large
spatial temperature variation has been observed, is close
to the position where large hole size variation has been
measured by the caliper logs. Figure 2 shows the DTS
temperature measured at t = 35 h with corresponding
hole diameter as a function of depth. One can see that
temperature variation seems to be correlated to the hole
size below 770 mKB. We assume the following
simplified case to understand this situation.

Zone 2: Tail filled casing and mud filled annulus (from

269 to 770 mKB) The 9 5/8-in. casing is filled with tail
cement from 269 mKB to the bottom. Annular space is
filled with mud down to 770 mKB. Contrary to the
mud-tail boundary at 269 mKB, the location of the lead
cement top in the annulus is not so clear in Figure 1.
DTS temperatures in this section have peaks at t 6 h
that slightly depend on the depth. Even after this peak,
temperature of this section was positive until t 38 h,
when we finished our measurement.

Let us assume that heat release from the cylindrical

source is constant. We can describe the heat balance
equation in this system as follows,
dT R 2 Qt
T
.
(1)
c R 2
=
2R
dt
tQ
R F (t )

Here, [kg/m3], c [J/ (kg K)], R [m], and Qt [J/m3] are

density, specific heat, radius, and total heat release of the
cement, respectively. T [oC] is a temperature of the
uniform heat source. t [sec] is an elapsed time. tQ [sec] is
a curing time of the cement. [W/ (mK)] is the thermal
conductivity of the external environment. F (t) (F (t)
0.7) is a dimensionless parameter (Hasan and Kabir,
2002) that approximately characterizes the radius where

Zone 3: Tail filled casing and lead filled annulus (below

770 mKB) Both casing and annulus below 770 mKB are
filled with tail and lead cement, respectively. Large
spatial temperature variations, about 20C in maximum
within a 5 m depth interval, have been observed from

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The 14th Formation Evaluation Symposium of Japan, September 29-30, 2008

Considering this positive correlation between

temperature and hole size, different temperature trends
from the hole size variation above 775 mKB can indicate
that the annular space is not filled with the heat source.
This assumption agrees with the result of the cement
bond log.
Temperature transients at Zone 2 and Zone 3: Observed
temperature behavior in each zone is slightly different
from each other. We study this situation by considering
the following model. Let us assume an axisymmetrical
system under which heat conduction can be described by
the following equation,

T (r , t ) 1
T
=
( r ) + q ( r , t ) .
t
r r
r

(3)

Here, r [m] is the radial position from the center axis and
q(r,t) [w/m3] is nonsteady heat flow from the cylindrical
cement. We simplify the nonsteady heat release by
assuming the following Gaussian heat release from the
curing cement,

Figure 2: DTS temperature with caliper log. Solid

line indicates well diameter measured by the
caliper log. Broken line indicates DTS
temperature at 35 h after the start of the
pumping.

w(r , t r ) =

Q
t h 2

exp(

(t r t h ) 2 .
)
2
2t h

(4)

Here tr is a lapse time from the start of the hydration

under the condition of the isothermal chemical reaction,
th is an indicator of the curing time of the cement, and th
is the time when the amount of the heat release becomes
maximum. Since the duration of the chemical reaction
depends on environmental temperature (T (t) [K]), we
apply Arrhenius law to take into account of the
temperature change during the curing process. Under this
model the actual chemical reaction time (t) can be
expressed as t =tr/, where can be described by

the formation temperature noticeably differs from the

initial system temperature T(0)=0. The ordinal
differential equation Eq. (1) can be solved as follows:
t

Q t
(2)
T (t ) =
1 e t .

c t Q

Here, T = (F (t) R2 ) / (2a) and a= / c. Figure 3

shows T(t=tQ) plotted as a function of 2R with input of
Q=100108, =2.5, c=2.5106, and a=10-6 for different
tQ. One can see that larger tQ results in an approximately
linear T (t=tQ) trend as a function of 2R.

E 1 1 .
))
R Tr T

(T , Tr ) = exp( (

(5)

In Eq. (5), E [kJ/mol] is activation energy, R [J/(mol K)]

is a universal gas constant, and Tr [K] is a reference
temperature with which the several parameters are
estimated from the laboratory experiment. The activation
energy can be calculated by the following formula,

E=

R ln(t 2 / t1 ) .
1 / T2 1 / T1

(6)

Here, t1 (t2) is th or th at the reference temperature T1

(T2). From Table 1 and Table 2, one can see that the
estimated value of the activation energy from laboratory
experiment largely depends on the parameters we use for
the calculation (th or th). By using Eqs. (4) and (5), one
can estimate actual heat release from the cement as
follows.
(7)
q(r , t ) = w(r , t ) (T , Tr )
This equation suggests that larger environmental
temperature results in shorter reaction time, and vice
versa.

Figure 3: Temperature of the cylindrical heat

source as a function of the diameter for different
hydration times from 5 h to 15 h.

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The 14th Formation Evaluation Symposium of Japan, September 29-30, 2008

for longer time (25< t <35) than in Zone 2.

Since there is only tail cement in Zone 2, a single heat

source is assumed based on Eq. (4). Simulation
parameters were decided based on a laboratory
experiment as is shown in Table 1. Figure 4 shows the
obtained simulation curve at the position of the DTS
cable. Two of measured DTS temperatures transient in
Zone 2 are also plotted for the comparison. One can see
that the simulation result shows similar temperature
transients as the measured values using the same order of
values as the laboratory experiment.

Even after the adjustment of the modeling parameter,

there is a slight temperature discrepancy between
simulation results and measured values. An actual
component of the injected cement slurry might be
playing important role for this small differences because
some additional inhibitors were mixed at the field for the
convenience of the operation. It is also important to note
that current simulation model is based on Arrhenius law
with Gaussian heat release with time. Since different
activation energies are derived depending on the
parameter we use for that calculation (th or th),
validation of this model is also important for further
quantitative analysis. In spite of these situations, the
current model roughly reproduces the obtained DTS
temperature transient after adjusting a few parameters.

Table 1 Parameters used in a simulation and

reference values from the laboratory experiment
for Tail cement.

Simulation
Tr=283.15 K(10 oC)

Q
(J/m3)
110
106

Lab exp.
Tr =277.15 K (4 oC)
Lab exp.
T r=283.15 K (10 oC)

110
106
110
106

th
(h)

th
(h)

Ea
(kJ/mol)

15

7.5

1.1

6.6

1.07

Table 2 Parameters used in a simulation and

reference values from the laboratory experiment
for Lead cement.

14 (th)
3 (th)
Simulation
Tr = 283.15 K (10 oC)
Lab exp.
Tr =277.15 K (4 oC)
Lab exp.
Tr=283.15 K (10 oC)

Ea
Q
th
th
(J/m3) (h)
(h) (kJ/mol)
100
20
20
50
106
100
36.7 27.2
80 (th)
106
100
30 (th)
17.2 20.4
106

Figure 4: DTS temperature transient at 400 and

500 mKB with the simulation result.

Two components heat sources are assumed for the

temperature simulation of Zone 3. We assume that the
tail cement is surrounded by the additional heat source
(lead cement) that hydration property is different from
the tail cement. In this model, there are two Gaussian
heat releases from the system. The obtained simulation
result is shown in Figure 5 as well as the measured DTS
temperature transients in Zone 3. The additional
parameters used in the simulation for lead cement are
summarized in Table 2 with the estimated values from
the laboratory experiment. One can notice that the peak
positions and widths of two different types of cement are
so different that effective heat release from the two
components heat sources in Zone 3 can be rather longer.
This may explain why temperature in Zone 3 was higher

Figure 5: DTS temperature transient at 920 and

950 mKB with the simulation result.

CONCLUSIONS
In-situ DTS temperature measurements have been
conducted to monitor the cement hydration process in the
research well for JOGMEC/NRCAN/AURORA Mallik
gas hydrate production program. Corroborated by the
modeling study DTS temperatures showed cement top
positions that agreed with the wireline logs run after the
cement hydration was complete. Nonsteady heat release
models from the cylindrical heat source give a similar
temperature trend as the measured values after adjusting

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The 14th Formation Evaluation Symposium of Japan, September 29-30, 2008

Numasawa M. et al., 2008, Objectives and Operation

Overview of the 2007 JOGMEC/NRCAN/AURORA
Mallik 2L-38 Gas Hydrate Production Test, Proceedings
of the 6th International Conference on Gas
Hydrates(ICGH2008), Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada

some parameters obtained in a laboratory experiment.

The presented results suggest that real-time DTS
measurement during the cement curing would be useful
to monitor the cement condition as well as thermal
behavior in the downhole. The application of this
technology in temperature-sensitive reservoir is one of
the most effective methods to understand the possible
thermal impact on the formation and to evaluate the
designed slurry compounds.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Naoki Sakiyama is an engineer in Methane Hydrate
Project at Schlumberger K.K. He graduated from the
graduate school of frontier sciences, the University of
Tokyo with a M.S. degree in advanced materials science.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is supported by Japan Oil, Gas and Metals
National Corporation (JOGMEC) under the MH21
research consortium of the Ministry of Economy, Trade
and Industry of Japan. The DTS field data shown here
was taken under the research program of
JOGMEC/NRCAN/AURORA Mallik gas hydrate
production. The authors would like to thank JOGMEC
and Natural Resources Canada (NRCAN) for their
permissions to publish this work.

Yoko Morikami is an engineer in Methane Hydrate

Project at Schlumberger K.K. She graduated from Osaka
University with an M.S. degree in physics.
Toru Ikegami has been Methane Hydrate Project
Manager in Hydrates and Monitoring Program,
Schlumberger K.K. in Japan. He joined Schlumberger
in 1995 after he finished his Ph. D research in applied
physics.
Since then, he had worked in a few
engineering projects, as a physicist. In 2003, he moved
to one of the research centers in USA, where he studied
borehole acoustic theory. He came back Japan to join
the Methane Hydrate Project in the summer 2006. He
received Ph. D, MSc, and BS all in applied physics from
Tokyo Institute of Technology.

REFERENCES

Carnahan, B.D. et al., 1999, Fiber Optic Temperature

Monitoring Technology: SPE 54599, presented at the
1999 SPE Western Regional Meeting.
Dallimore, S.R. and Collett, T.S., 2005. Scientific Results
from the Mallik 2002 Gas Hydrate Production Well
Program, GSC Bulletin 585.

Vyacheslav Pimenov is a consultant in Schlumberger

Moscow Research. He graduated Moscow Engineering
Physics Institute in 1972, takes PhD degree in 1976,
professor of Russian Geological Prospecting University.

Dillenbeck, R.L. and Mombourquette, I.G., 2001.

Real-Time Measurement of Downhole Annular
Cementing Temperature for Precise Cementing Design
and Application: SPE 71386, presented at the 2001 SPE
Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition.

Valery Shako is senior research scientist in

Schlumberger Moscow Research. He graduated Moscow
Engineering Physics Institute in 1882. Expert in
numerical methods and mass and heat transfer.

Fujii, K. et al., 2008. Development of a Monitoring

System for the JOGMEC/NRCAN/AURORA Mallik Gas
Hydrate Production Test Program, Proceedings of the 6th
International Conference on Gas Hydrates(ICGH2008),
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Hasan, A.R., Kabir, C.S., 2002. Fluid flow and heat
transfer in wellbores, Published by Society of Petroleum
Engineers (SPE)

Masafumi Fukuhara is a program manager of Acoustic

at Schlumberger Moscow Research. He has been
involved in a variety of Schlumberger research and
development
projects
for
downhole
tool-and
sensor-related activities such as pressure sensors, NMR,
borehole seismic, borehole sonic, borehole sonic imaging,
and Methane Hydrate permanent monitoring systems. He
graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan University with an
M.S. degree in physics. He is a member of SPWLA.

Henninges, J. et al., 2005, Wireline Distributed

Temperature Measurements and Permanent Installations
Behind Casing, Proceedings World Geothermal Congress,
Antalya, Turkey.

Kasumi Fujii is a senior research engineer, seconded to

JOGMEC from Schlumberger K.K. She graduated from
Ochanomizu University with a M.S. degree in physics, a
member of SPWLA.

Nelson, E. and Guillot, 2006. D. Well Cementing,

Second Edition, p. 551-552. Published by Schlumberger.

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