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One of the most important areas of Offshore Oil and Gas R&D in recent years has been the ongoing development of improved reservoir and production monitoring technology. Nothing else offers the potential returns that come with increased understanding of the reservoir and the improvements in realtime production control that this knowledge can provide. As reported at OTC 2003, Ocean Design, Inc. (ODI) has been developing products for this application for the last four (4) years, working with the Intelligent Wells Group at BP America Production Company in Houston. 2003 has seen the completion of development and qualification of a revolutionary small form-factor, wet-mateable, fiber-optic connector designed for subsea x-tree and down-hole applications. From initial conception, this has been a challenging development, given the harsh environments encountered down-hole and at the tree-tubing hanger interface, and the small space envelope available through any vertical or horizontal x-tree system. Ocean Design is working closely with BP and FMC on a first system to mount to the FMC horizontal tree specified by BP for the Atlantis Project in the deepwater GOM. Ocean Design has also been modifying the Atlantis design to be used with a vertical x-tree system for BP's Greater Plutino Project in Block 18 offshore Angola. Following on from last year's paper (OTC 15323) that discussed the potential applications and development of the ICONN connection system, this paper focuses on the lessons learned during the development process, discusses the qualification program in greater detail and presents the results obtained. Introduction Over the last twelve months, an increased focus has been directed at the potential of optical fiber in the Offshore Oil & Gas Industry. Optical fiber offers one method of achieving intelligent well sensor technology and is being considered for installation on a few major, key projects over the next two (2) years. Intelligent well monitoring and the near future step to intelligent well control have the potential to significantly improve the economics of deepwater wells through a combination of risk mitigation(Ref 1) through optimized well operation and maintenance, and increased hydrocarbon recovery. Not only does this improvement in reservoir performance mean that the economics of new fields can be improved by a significant margin, it also has two (2) other benefits.Review of marginal fields will identify fields that can now be economically developed.Producing fields may have the identified recoverable reserves increased, and some fields that had already reached the point at which economic recovery of additional reserves was not previously justified, may be extended and possibly even some shutdown fields reactivated. Optical fiber sensors can provide high-quality data on down-hole conditions (continuously and in real-time) and are inherently compatible with the down-hole environment. Optical fiber provides a range of sensor technologies including Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS), in-fiber point source sensors (typically of the Bragg grating type) and passive mechanical point source sensors that are read optically through an attached optical fiber.

Ocean Design, Inc. (ODI) has developed a wet-mate able connector which, in the configuration tested, passes foursingle-mode optical circuits and four 10 amp electrical circuits. The connector is presently built in diver-mate, stab plate and ROV configurations. This paper summarizes the esults of qualification tests of these connectors conducted in collaboration with Kvaerner FSSL, Ltd. (KFL). Qualification tests included high and low temperature, thermal shock, hydrostatic pressure, mating and debating in sandy, salty seawater both at 1 atmosphere and at 6,00Opsi, mechanical shock, vibration and others. In addition to these qualification tests, an integration test in a mock-up of the customer's hardware was completed. Typical pass-fail criteria were 0.5dB optical loss @ 1,550nm on the optical circuits, and 1 gig ohm isolation resistance @ 500 VDC on the electrical circuits. Details of the testing and the subsequent results will be discussed. Introduction Over the past 2 years, OD1 has designed and developed a range of multiple channel wet-mate able electro-optical connectors. These connectors are a novel and unique product which provides enabling technology for the use of fiber-optics in the sub sea environment. An essential part of this development was the qualification of the connector for the often harsh life of sub sea use. ODI, together with KFL, conducted a significant qualification test program on the connector. This testing included all of the tests normally came out on wet-mate able electrical connectors, with the addition of optical performance tests. KFL are a sub sea control system supplier for the Oil & Gas industry, and their ultimate use for the connector will be in their optical sub sea communications system (Ref. 1). The testing has also been included as part of an EC THERMIE program that KFL are conducting, with the objective of demonstrating that fiber optic communication is a feasible and reliable alternative to contemporary electrical sub sea communications. Norsk Hydro and TOTAL were involved in the program, and both attended some of the qualification tests at ODI's facility in Florida, USA. In addition to the testing came out at ODI's facility, "real-life" tests were conducted in a dock trial, again in conjunction with KFL. Details of the individual tests follow, together with a summary of the results, and these are compared to the connector's requirements. A brief discussion of actual and potential uses for the connector is also included. The Connector Under Test OD1 developed a fully wet-mate able, multiple channel, electro-optical connector with up to eight optical or electrical circuits. The optical circuits are available as either single- ormulti-mode with a typical loss of less than 0.5dB. The electrical circuits are rated at 10 amps and 500 VDC. The connector is designed to be fully wet-mate able at any ocean depth and supports differential pressure of up to 6,000psi. In both connector halves, the contacts are contained within oil filled, pressure balanced chambers. As the connectors are mated, rolling seals on the mating faces of the respective connector halves squeeze together to displace any water between them. Further mating causes the seals to rotate, and displace any debris trapped between them.