Wireline (cabling)

In the oil and gas industry, the term wireline usually refers to a cabling technology used by operators of oil and gas wells to lower equipment or measurement devices into the well for the purposes of well intervention, reservoir evaluation, and pipe recovery.

Tools inserted into the well for both workover and logging efforts, wirelines and slicklines are very similar devices. While a slickline is a thin cable introduced into a well to deliver and retrieve tools downhole, a wireline is an electrical cable used to lower tools into and transmit data about the conditions of the wellbore called wireline logs. Usually consisting of braided cables, wirelines are used to perform wireline logging, as well.

Braided line can contain an inner core of insulated wires which provide power to equipment located at the end of the cable, normally referred to as electric line, and provides a pathway for electrical telemetry for communication between the surface and equipment at the end of the cable.

Used to place and recover wellbore equipment, such as plugs, gauges and valves, slicklines are single-strand non-electric cables lowered into oil and gas wells from the surface. Slicklines can also be used to adjust valves and sleeves located downhole, as well as repair tubing within the wellbore.

Wrapped around a drum on the back of a truck, the slickline is raised and lowered in the well by reeling in and out the wire hydraulically.

Braided line can contain an inner core of insulated wires which provide power to equipment located at the end of the cable, normally referred to as electric line, and provides a pathway for electrical telemetry for communication between the surface and equipment at the end of the cable.

On the other hand, wirelines are electric cables that transmit data about the well. Consisting of single strands or multi-strands, the wireline is used for both well intervention and formation evaluation operations. In other words, wirelines are useful in gathering data about the well in logging activities, as well as in workover jobs that require data transmittal.

First developed by Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger in 1927, wireline logs measure formation properties in a well through electrical lines of wire. Different from MWD and mud logs, wireline logs are constant downhole measurements sent through the electrical wireline used to help geologists, drillers and engineers make real-time decisions about drilling operations. Wireline logs can measure resistivity, conductivity and formation pressure, as well as sonic properties and wellbore dimensions.

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