The present invention relates generally to equipment utilized and operations performed in conjunction with subterranean wells and, in an embodiment described herein, more particularly provides a downhole fiber optic wet connect and gravel pack completion.
It would be very desirable to be able to use a fiber optic line to monitor production from a well, for example, to monitor water encroachment, identify production sources, evaluate stimulation treatments and completion practices, etc. It is known to use fiber optic lines to transmit indications from downhole sensors, to communicate in the downhole environment and to use a fiber optic line as a sensor.
However, fiber optic lines may be damaged in operations such as gravel packing, expanding tubulars downhole, etc. For this reason, it would be beneficial to be able to replace portions of a fiber optic line downhole, or to install a substitute fiber optic line. This replacement operation would be more economical if a completion string did not have to be retrieved from a well to replace/install the fiber optic line.
Furthermore, it is sometimes desirable to complete a well in sections or intervals, for example, where a horizontal well is gravel packed in sections, or where zones intersected by a vertical well are separately gravel packed. In these cases, it would be beneficial to be able to connect separate sections of fiber optic line to each other downhole, so that the fiber optic line may be installed in sections along with the corresponding sections of the completion.