In the Oil Industry
Wireline Field Engineer
In my capacity as Wireline Field Engineer with Schlumberger Oilfield Services, I deal with data acquisition and processing and all the allied engineering operations. I am responsible for the acquisition of petrophysical (pertaining to rocks, their fluid constituents and their physical properties) and geophysical data (rock types, elemental and other chemical properties); in the "open hole" logging environment. In the "cased hole" and production environments the aim is to gather cement and casing integrity through physical properties. In "production logging", the idea is to characterise and quantify flow profiles, downhole fluid distribution and contributions from the different parts of the reservoir. The challenges include data quality assurance and repeatability, conveyance methods (Wireline, drillpipe assisted, powered conveyance) and time/resource management in remote offshore and onshore environments.
For those who are unfamiliar with "Wireline Logging" operations the schematic alongside should make things easier to understand. The core idea behind Wireline is to convey a set of sensors, actuators and other physical measurement devices, housed in "tools" or combinations down into the wellbore. The conveyance is achieved by means of a wireline (also known as an electric line or stranded line); which acts both as a mechanical link as well as an electrical connection (for power and data transmission) between the surface equipment and the downhole tools. The acquisition, conveyance and safety of operations is the coming together of a complex system consisting of electronics and tellecommunication, hydraulics, pneumatic and mechanical systems coupled with solid-state and nuclear physics, acoustics, electromagnetic sensor systems and high pressure/temperature engineering.
My other duties include crew training and management, maintenance scheduling and management, operations planning and management on a small scale, while ensuring that safety, health and environment are safegaurded. After being a Leader for a year, I am currently an active member of the Loss Prevention Team in Wireline, in the Qatar geomarket, a voluntary group that deals with these HSE issues, compliance and awareness.
