Oil and gas company Wintershall Dea said Thursday it had invested in Norway-based smart well flow diagnostics provider Wellstarter.
"The Norwegian based company has developed an innovative solution, offering cost effective and real time wireless downhole flow monitoring. The Heatwave Inflow Profile log (HIPlog) technology enables optimized reservoir management, fundamental in order to optimize field recovery," Wintershall Dea said.
"Key decisions for reservoir management like where to drill infill wells, how to complete a well and how to balance production and injection all requires reliable downhole production data. Conventional technologies used to acquire this data, such as production logging tools, can involve high cost and risk. HIPlog offers affordable, low risk and emission-free tracing of steady-state flow with real-time information. It does so based on heat pulses released into the well stream. The heat pulse is picked up by sensors and can be analyzed in real-time, either on-site or remotely," the company added.
Applicable in CO2 Injection
“The Wellstarter HIPlog technology offers reliable, hassle-free, and highly cost-effective flow diagnostics in most well conditions. It will offer us value across a range of applications”, says Andreas Berger, Managing Director of Wintershall Dea Technology Ventures.
“Because the solution is also applicable for CO2 injection monitoring, we see potential for the technology not just in E&P but also in our growing carbon management business.”
Wintershall Dea Technology Ventures GmbH has acquired a 24 percent stake Wellstarter.
The company invested alongside ARA Energy AS in this investment round, joining existing shareholders Prores AS and ProVenture. Equinor Ventures AS and Shell Ventures BV are indirect investors in Wellstarter AS, being investors in ProVenture Seed II AS. Innovation Norway and the Norwegian Research Council also support Wellstarter with grants.