Petrospec’s 2025 Winter Program: Another Busy Season

The numbers add up to a busy winter for Petrospec and their clients—the busiest winter season in years.

Petrospec worked closely with production engineers to optimize well completions based on successful historical data. “We talked extensively with our clients to find a design that works best for them and their particular needs,” shares Mick Chalifoux, account manager at Petrospec. “We’re really happy with our Q1 performance this year. We were fortunate to work with almost every major producer in Alberta,” said Chalifoux.

In Q1, Petrospec successfully installed and commissioned a wide range of instrumentation across various types of observation wells. The team clamped and cemented a record number of vibrating wire piezometers, ensuring accurate pressure and temperature measurements critical for subsurface monitoring.

Additionally, they performed over 100 thermocouple bundle spooling operations, providing accurate temperature data essential for reservoir management and regulatory requirements. They also installed over 80 km of new control line within observation wells, achieving an overall installation success rate of near 100%. This extensive deployment supports reliable data collection and system integrity.

Along with these field operations, their E&I group manufactured and installed over 65 Remote Terminal Units (RTUs), enabling seamless data acquisition and remote monitoring of the instrumentation. Clearly, Petrospec is committed to delivering high-quality, reliable instrumentation solutions for their clients.

And even though it was a busy season, they were still able to answer the call when clients needed to fill a last-minute order. So what would normally be a 3 or 4-month lead time was delivered in 2 weeks. Meeting those tight turn-around times, while maintaining quality control, is what Petrospec strives for on every job. Each well comes with an engineered document package to further support clients.

These product lines top Petrospec’s list of installs this winter:

Dual Vibrating Wire (VW) Pressure and Temperature Gauge: Used to provide continuous pressure and temperature monitoring at a desired well depth, the Dual VW pressure sensor provides excellent long-term accuracy, stability of readings, and reliability under demanding conditions such as SAGD and other thermal applications.

Standard construction consists of high-temp stainless steel alloys with connections made using a robust magnesium oxide (MgO) mineral insulated (MI) cable for maximum strength and temperature rating. The combination MI cable has 2 independent circuits with each circuit terminating inside the gauge housing, which is responsible for independent pressure and temperature readings.

Petrospec’s experience with MI cables over the past 9 years has been very successful with several thousand MI cable installations. Their MI thermocouple cables have excellent mechanical strength, superior corrosion and scaling resistance, and are resistant to stresses like bending, twisting, or flattening.

In preparation for their busiest season, Petrospec onboarded several new staff including 3 co-op students from the University of Alberta. Time spent on training new staff was also increased, knowing the investment would pay off in Q1. “It was an incredible experience; few engineers, especially students, get this kind of exposure,” shares one of their co-op students.

Petrospec also offers the full suite of downhole instrumentation products, including DTS, DAS, Power-Tube, and Hot-Tube. Please feel free to reach out for a technical presentation highlighting any of their product lines or reservoir monitoring.

About Petrospec Engineering

Established in 1997, Petrospec is proud to be a leading provider of turn-key reservoir monitoring systems for oil and gas operators. We strive to improve efficiency, meet high safety standards, and provide equipment and software for harsh environments. Our Edmonton-based company is a global innovator in downhole instrumentation, production optimization, and the accurate measurement of temperature, pressure, acoustics, and flow.