Material, Manufacturing and Test Results for High-Temperature Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Structures for NMR Reservoir Surveillance and Other Oilfield Applications

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) logging provides a unique oilfield reservoir surveillance technique, which can distinguish formation fluid properties such as brine, gas, and oil saturation levels and oil viscosity. This open-hole technique is typically limited to applications below 150°C. For this purpose a high-temperature non-metallic and non-magnetic flask was required for the containment and insulation of the NMR logging equipment. Due to high-temperature operating conditions a fiber-reinforced bismaleimide (BMI) polymer material system was employed for the flask. Owing to its tubular shape, the filament winding manufacturing method was adopted for efficient flask production. The characteristics of the chosen BMI material system required elevated-temperature winding processes along with the integration of a liner structure coupled with an external coating layer to protect the composite structure from harmful fluid contact and ingress during reservoir surveillance operations. The present paper describes the development, manufacturing processes and testing campaign that were conducted to implement the BMI composite material system for the NMR containment flask and other advanced oilfield applications requiring non-metallic components.