Tracerco Smart Tracers for Mariner Field

Tracerco, a subsidiary of Johnson Matthey, has secured a contract to provide smart tracer technology for flow measurement of six new wells in Statoil’s Maureen reservoir of the Mariner field in the UK North Sea.

As part of field development, Tracerco’s smart tracers should enable fluid inflow measurement of both oil and water in various zones within the long horizontal wells.

Nils Gunnar Sætherø, Mariner Petroleum Technology manager, commented: “Statoil Aberdeen is focused on ensuring an efficient ramp-up of the Mariner field to production plateau and we see the use of chemical tracers as a key technology for the verification of well clean-up as well as improved well productivity understanding.

“We believe the use of chemical tracers gives the optimum cost benefit to the Mariner project in the current economic climate and look forward to working with Tracerco to achieve this goal.”

The project is due to start in Q2 2016 and Tracerco’s technology will be deployed to measure clean out efficiency initially, with further measurements being provided into the life of the wells.

Stuart Brown, Head of Business Development for Tracerco, said: “We have a great working relationship with Statoil, and are delighted to be working with them on this exciting new development of the Mariner field. We have been providing smart tracer technology to the UK North Sea region for over 30 years, and despite the drop in overall oil price, we have seen encouraging take-up on our TPL globally. This contract is an excellent example of where operators see value in our technology, as they seek to reduce lift costs.”