Multi-year downhole-to-desktop data from sensors along the tubing enables engineers to continuously monitor reservoir and well performance, eliminating reliance on costly, 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 modeling for both new and existing assets. By providing uninterrupted well data, SonicGauge™ helps operators reduce forecasting uncertainty, lower production costs, and support key investment decisions.

The wireless gauges can be permanently deployed on clamps or ported subs along the tubing during well completion or retrofitted inside the production tubing using the slimline Barracuda™ HEX-Hanger™ via slickline or e-line. SonicRepeater stations, each equipped with onboard pressure sensors, provide real-time flowing and static pressure data, allowing engineers to monitor pressure gradients, fluid contacts, and multi-zone performance—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 secondary recovery, EOR, CO₂ injection, and energy storage projects, where detecting barriers and baffles is critical for optimising production-injection patterns, well count, and capital expenditure.

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 accurately assess re-pressurisation trends and track project success.

At field scale, the SonicGauge™ provides operators with critical input for the digital oilfield, enabling the simultaneous monitoring of all wells during testing for enhanced decision-making and reservoir management.

Production test data is routinely used to monitor well performance and update the Inflow Performance Relationship (IPR). Additionally, Vertical Lift Performance (VLP) can be refined using pressure data along the tubing, which helps characterise flow regime changes in flowing conditions or identify fluid contacts in static conditions.

Permeability and skin can be continuously tracked through Pressure Build-Up (PBU) analysis, which requires high-frequency, real-time data from early-time wellbore storage effects through 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.

During well test flow periods, the SonicGauge™ provides real-time flowing bottom-hole pressure (FBHP) and additional pressure data from multiple tool stations along the wellbore. The technology is installed well in advance of a well test program, ensuring that steady-state conditions are reached before shut-in or production changes occur, allowing for higher-quality test data.

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.

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.

Continuous downhole pressure, temperature, and vibration monitoring in gas (UGS), hydrogen energy (HES), 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 for long-term monitoring of storage volume, pressure, and caprock integrity, operators must adopt high-accuracy real-time monitoring solutions to ensure compliance.

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

Under Development: Given the large injection and production rates that can induce tubing oscillation, the technology goes beyond pressure and temperature monitoring—providing real-time vibration data to help operators safely manage injection and withdrawal rates while maintaining system integrity.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a key strategy for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, involving the injection of CO₂ into depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs or saline aquifers. Effective monitoring and prediction of carbon storage performance require accurate estimation of injectivity indexes and downhole injection pressures to forecast CO₂ injection rates and overall storage volumes.

The SonicGauge™ provides high-accuracy, high-resolution downhole data to continuously monitor CO₂ injection parameters, ensuring safety margins are maintained and storage capacity is accurately tracked to refine injection strategies.

Beyond storage applications, the SonicGauge™ can play a critical role in monitoring CO₂ flooding for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). Real-time downhole pressure data enables operators to optimise injection rates, maximising flood efficiency. Additionally, the technology delivers precise real-time data for interference and observation well monitoring, improving oil recovery rates and refining predictive models of CO₂ subsurface behavior to enhance future field development plans.

Verifying 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 experienced by the plug or 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, delivering 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 needed to make informed decisions about well suspension and abandonment strategies.