Co-developed with Aker BP.Based on field experience across wells in the North Sea with continuous in-well tracer monitoring.
Outputs
Four outcomes from the same model
The tracer module sits on top of the existing Insight flow simulation as an independent scalar transport layer. Once it is set up, the same model drives four different workflows for operators and consulting teams.
Virtual Chemical PLT
Simulate a shut-in and restart cycle directly in Insight. The model predicts tracer arrival time, peak concentration, decline rate, and pulse width at the wellhead for each installed tracer. Design the chemical PLT before running it in the field, or reinterpret a completed PLT against a calibrated well model.
Zone-by-zone production allocation
History-match measured tracer data against the simulation to back out zonal phase rates, wetting fractions, and effective mass-transfer parameters. Turn a continuous-monitoring dataset into a quantitative picture of which zones are producing oil, water, and gas.
Completion design validation
Compare predicted tracer signatures against measured field response to diagnose whether an AICD or AICV is performing as designed. Identify collapsed annulus, wetting-state changes, and breakthrough paths that would otherwise remain hidden.
Chemical PLT optimisation
Quantify how shut-in time, tracer placement, and sampling frequency affect PLT resolution. Optimise the field procedure before committing to it, so the data collected is actually diagnostic.
The physics
Built on lab-proven release mechanics
The tracer module moves beyond empirical fits to a first-principles release model, phase-selective exposure logic, and a genuine coupling to the annulus flow field. Each layer has been documented in recent SPE literature and is calibrated against published lab data and Aker BP field measurements.
First-principles release
Fickian diffusion from the polymer rod, with a power-law mass release rate that follows the short-time approximation of the diffusion equation. Configurable per tracer and temperature based on lab-proven release curves.
Phase-selective wetting
Oil tracer rods release only when in contact with oil and become dormant when water-wet. Water and gas tracers follow the same logic for their respective phases. A wetting-fraction field, W_i(x,t), captures local phase exposure along each rod.
Tracer clock
The release clock accounts for time since installation. A tracer installed years ago releases at a lower rate than a fresh one, which directly affects chemical PLT mass accumulation during shut-in.
Annulus segregation coupling
Open-annulus wells are where tracer modelling gets interesting. Insight is one of the few tools that resolves annulus phase segregation, and the tracer source term sits on top of that flow field. For collapsed or gravel-packed annuli, bulk phase fractions are used instead.
Chemical PLT
Shut-in, restart, and read the tracers
A chemical PLT exploits a simple principle: during shut-in, each tracer rod releases into the stagnant annulus, building a local concentration cloud. When the well is restarted, the clouds sweep up the tubing and arrive at the wellhead in an order that encodes each zone’s inflow contribution.
Insight simulates the full cycle, giving engineers four diagnostic plots they can read directly against measured data: wellhead concentration vs. time, the restart response zoom, cumulative mass produced per tracer, and normalised tracer return by zone.
What the signal tells you
Arrival time
Transport distance from the tracer location to surface and local flow velocity
Decline rate after peak
Most robust indicator of local inflow rate, steeper decline means higher zonal flow
Pulse width
Tracer cloud extent at end of shut-in, combined with axial dispersion and phase slip
Normalised cumulative return
Direct measure of relative zonal contribution, the faster a tracer is fully recovered, the more flow that zone contributes
Talk to us
Tracer data already in a drawer?
If your field has continuous tracer monitoring or a chemical PLT dataset waiting for interpretation, we can run it through the tracer module as a consulting engagement while the in-product workflow completes development.