Multi-year downhole-to-desktop data from sensors distributed along the tubing enables engineers to continuously monitor reservoir and well performance, eliminating reliance on sporadic short-term testing programs such as memory gauge surveys. With real-time data, engineers can quickly assess the impact of production and injection rate changes, optimise reservoir management, and identify production enhancement opportunities.

The SonicGauge™ is a plug-and-play solution that delivers continuous real-time downhole pressure and temperature data, supporting Inflow Performance Relationship (IPR) updates, Vertical Lift Performance (VLP) curve analysis, Pressure Build-Up (PBU) operations, and dynamic reservoir modelling for green and brownfield assets. By providing uninterrupted well data, the SonicGauge™ helps operators reduce forecasting uncertainty, lower production costs, and support key investment decisions.

The SonicGauge™ can be permanently deployed on clamps or ported subs along the tubing during well completion or retrofitted inside the production tubing using the Barracuda™ HEX-Hanger™ via slickline or e-line. SonicRepeater stations, each equipped with onboard pressure sensors, provide real-time flowing and static pressure data from both the tubing and annulus, allowing engineers to monitor pressure gradients and multiple zones, fluid contacts, gas lift injection points, and ALS intake/discharge pressure—delivering critical insights for optimising well and reservoir management.

Real-time and long-term downhole data is essential for assessing reservoir properties through interference and pulse tests, which simultaneously track the behavior of multiple wells. These tests are particularly valuable for evaluating the performance of secondary recovery, EOR, CO₂ injection, and energy storage projects, where identifying reservoir barriers and baffles is critical for optimising production-injection patterns, well count, and the design of surface facilities.

The SonicGauge™ can be retrofitted via slickline in injection wells, delivering real-time injectivity index data throughout the lifecycle of water flood and gas injection projects. In observation wells, it enables continuous pressure response monitoring, allowing operators to assess re-pressurisation trends accurately and track project success under shut-in conditions.

At field scale, the SonicGauge™ provides operators with critical input for the digital oilfield, enabling the simultaneous monitoring of all wells in flowing, injection or shut-in conditions for enhanced decision-making and reservoir management.

Production test data is routinely utilised to monitor well performance and update Inflow and Outflow Performance Relationships (IPR and VLP). The SonicGauge™ System incorporates distributed sensors along the tubing, and the resulting pressure gradient data enables the characterisation of flow regime changes and the identification of fluid contacts under static conditions.

Installed well in advance of a well test programme, the technology ensures that steady-state conditions are established before shut-in or production adjustments occur, enhancing the accuracy and reliability of test data.

Permeability and skin can be estimated through Pressure Build-Up (PBU) analysis, which requires high-frequency data—from early-time wellbore storage effects to steady-state conditions. When acquired in real time, Pressure Transient Analysis (PTA) of PBU responses can be conducted concurrently, minimising production deferrals and optimising reservoir management decisions.

Drill Stem Testing (DST) provides critical data for prospect evaluation and field development planning, making it essential for operators to acquire high-accuracy, real-time downhole pressure and temperature data to assess and report reservoir parameters without delay. This data is used as a reservoir modelling basis and for the design of permanent production facilities.

In DST applications, the SonicGauge™ delivers real-time surface-read-out data from below the tester valve, enabling live well test analysis. This allows operators to make fast, informed decisions, mitigate risks, and optimise rig time efficiency.

Additionally, the SonicSync™ Wireless Command+Control Platform—typically used to program downhole data sampling schedules—can also transmit wireless surface-to-downhole signals to trigger third-party fluid samplers or decode downhole-to-surface signals for positive perforation gun firing confirmation, enhancing operational control and reliability.

The accurate provision of real-time downhole parameters is essential for the safe and successful execution of completion operations. Until recently, live downhole data acquisition technology was primarily limited to drilling operations, while completion installation procedures relied on surface data and estimated downhole parameters derived from hydraulic and thermodynamic models. This approach often led to mechanical failures, suboptimal installations, increased non-productive time (NPT), and reduced well productivity.

Advancements in well design, including higher deviation angles and tighter build-up rates, have introduced greater complexity in achieving precise subsurface targets and maximising reservoir contact. These factors result in narrow mud weight windows, necessitating accurate and timely measurements. When productivity is a key objective, rigorous sand control and stimulation treatment pumping schedules must be carefully monitored in terms of displacement pressures and equivalent circulating densities.

As continuous circulation of a single-phase fluid cannot be maintained during completion operations, post-job data analysis alone is insufficient to accurately estimate real-time conditions. Traditional pressure pulse technology fails to deliver timely and adequate downhole pressure and temperature data unlike the SonicGauge™, which can serve as the backbone of sand control placement operations.

Continuous downhole pressure, temperature, and vibration monitoring in hydrocarbon gas (UGS), hydrogen energy (HES), CO2 (CCS) and compressed-air energy (CAES) storage wells provides operators with critical data for material balance calculations, fluid level assessments, and tubing stability analysis. As governments enforce stricter regulatory requirements to preserve caprock and cement behind casing integrity, operators must integrate high-accuracy downhole real-time monitoring solutions to ensure operational compliance.

The SonicGauge™ enables cost-effective regulatory compliance by delivering high-resolution downhole data to detect deviations from expected subsurface storage pressures. The technology dynamically measures injection and production pressure gradients through SonicRepeater stations equipped with onboard sensors, strategically deployed along the tubing string to ensure operational safety while attaining optimum storage capacity.

Under Development: Given that high injection and production rates can induce tubing oscillations, enhancements to the current technology could extend beyond pressure and temperature monitoring to provide real-time vibration data. This advancement would elevate the operation of gas storage facilities, enhancing safety and system integrity management.

Monitoring the integrity of subsurface barriers is essential when conducting well suspension operations. Traditionally, barriers are tested by pressurising from above shortly after installation; however, this method does not provide insight into the differential pressure seen by the plug and the hydraulic integrity of the barrier over medium to long-term periods.

The SonicGauge™ can be deployed below mechanical plugs, storm packers, inflatable packers or metal-alloy barriers to deliver real-time differential pressure data during pressure testing and continuous monitoring of above- and below-plug conditions over multi-year periods. This ensures early detection of barrier degradation, enhances well integrity assurance, and provides operators with the data required to make informed decisions about well suspension and abandonment strategies.