Design Features of an Emerging Casing Inspection Technology and its Implication for Geothermal Well Quenching

High temperature geothermal wells are quenched to enable a variety of well intervention operations. The impact of quenching on the integrity of casing has seemingly not been explicitly investigated using downhole casing inspections technologies. Scientific Drilling International (SDI) has released an advanced multi-finger caliper technology that is capable of withstanding extreme temperatures and can, therefore, be deployed for myriad casing inspection applications without resorting to quenching. This offers the prospect of extending geothermal well lifecycles and minimizing environmental stresses that result in additional repairs in order to perform downhole data acquisition activities. The technology was developed with the objective of introducing advanced casing inspection measurement techniques to high temperature, geothermal environments. This required research and development of new software, firmware and hardware design that has materialized in the Vulcan MFT-40 multi-finger caliper. The data acquired from the caliper, presented from early testing, highlights the level of valuable detail that can be garnered from this high-temperature, new technology development.