Distinguished Lecturer: Let There Be Light! Creating Value from Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing

Co-hosted by SPE FMTS and TÜV SÜD NEL, this technical forum focuses on defensible, traceable flow measurement for production, allocation, custody transfer, emissions reporting, regulatory compliance, commercial settlement, and emerging-energy applications. The program is being developed around six technical sessions, with moderated discussion and posters; final session groupings are to be set after abstracts are reviewed. Topics include field measurement challenges across changing operating conditions and brownfield or offshore installations; meter design, manufacturing controls, technology selection, and quality assurance; calibration, qualification, laboratory-to-field transferability, and uncertainty; deployment, diagnostics, data quality, and continuous assurance; single-phase measurement, custody transfer, and allocation; CCUS, hydrogen, methane, and emerging-energy measurement; and validation, governance, and decision-grade evidence. Specific issues include meter performance limits, sensor and meter-body design, traceability, reference quality, commissioning and configuration control, anomaly detection, fiscal measurement assurance, emissions evidence, uncertainty propagation, and criteria for recalibrating, repairing, or replacing meters.

Examines how casing design has evolved from early load-case frameworks and why traditional tubular stress analysis can fall short in complex wells. Topics include HPHT wells, extended-reach drilling, multistage-fractured unconventionals, subsea wells with sealed annuli and trapped-annular risk, CO₂ injection for carbon capture and storage, and super-hot geothermal wells. The presentation addresses how incomplete or oversimplified pressure, temperature, and load descriptions contribute to tubular failures; the role of rigorous load cases in consistent design; and engineering judgment, model selection, and improved load modeling across well lifecycles.

The lecture examines how zone permeability, fluid content, formation pressure—including reservoir recharge prediction—and caprock integrity inform subsurface isolation requirements and abandonment barrier placement. It addresses technical and operational challenges of well abandonment, including defining key isolation parameters when data is limited, what happens when an abandonment plan proves unworkable in practice, and cost implications and optimization opportunities. Case studies demonstrate collaboration between subsurface specialists, well engineers, and operators to develop a robust subsurface basis of design for abandonment. The presentation covers effective decision-making, risk-mitigation strategies, the benefits of engaging a subsurface team throughout the project, and a data-driven, risk-based approach to well decommissioning.

Optics Valley’s 10th annual conference covers optics and photonics applications in astronomy, biomedical technology, laser systems and applications, metrology, photonic integrated systems and sensors, and systems integration and sensing. The program includes daily keynotes, more than 24 innovation and technology presentations, more than 20 company spotlights, and optional lab, company, and facility tours. Presentation topics include techniques and processes for industrial, commercial, and scientific applications, along with broader industry insights and trends.

The program covers utility grid modernization, distribution planning, ADMS and DERMS deployment, distributed energy resource management, advanced metering, battery storage, microgrids, and data-center load growth. Sessions address grid reliability and resilience, wildfire risk, cybersecurity and OT security, AI applications in planning and operations, utility communications, affordability, workforce development, and policy and regulation. Named program items include “How Are Utility CEOs Driving the Age of Acceleration?”, “How Will the Data Center Boom Define the Evolution of the Grid?”, and “US DOE Grid Modernization Investment Framework – An Effective Cost Justification for Building the Grid of the Future.”

The peer-led program is designed for terminal operators and focuses on health and safety topics affecting terminal operations. Presentations use firsthand operating experiences to discuss incidents, responses, and lessons learned. Sessions address Colonial Pipeline’s “Stuff That Kills You” model for high-energy risks in hazardous work environments; ITC’s cultural, engineering, and reliability changes following the Deer Park fire, including API 653, risk-based inspection, preventive and predictive maintenance; and electrical heat-tracing hazards on movable piping, including design, inspection, testing, and preventive maintenance. Other topics include flammable refrigerants used with LPG, LNG, and specialty chemicals; emergency response and causes of a product spill; corrective actions following an unintended gasoline release during pig retrieval; systems thinking and human performance in terminal-to-barge personnel transfers; and task-focused local plant safety meetings. The program also covers investigation of a leaking aboveground storage tank, including leak identification, nondestructive inspections, and destructive testing. Registration is limited to terminal member companies.

Topics include electrical safety and high-risk work environments; serious-incident reviews and lessons learned; human performance and error reduction; contractor safety; confined-space, work-at-height, and rescue practices; and emergency response, thermal runaway, and fire preparedness for battery energy storage systems. Operations and asset-performance topics include predictive maintenance, reliability optimization, advanced analytics, major-component reliability for gearboxes, blades, inverters, and BESS, aging fleets, asset-life extension, hybrid wind, solar, and storage operations, and operational readiness and commissioning. Workforce themes include fatigue management, technician readiness, apprenticeships, cross-training, frontline leadership, knowledge transfer, and succession planning. The PowerCast Stage features practical presentations on operational experiences, demonstrations, emerging technologies, and best practices.

Sessions examine natural gas market fundamentals for AI data center demand, including basin capabilities, rig activity, storage trends, pipeline bottlenecks, competition with LNG exports and other electricity demand, and commercial strategies for procurement, hedging, and risk management. The program also addresses AI and predictive analytics for pipeline nominations, forecasting, capacity management, and gas-flow optimization, plus integration with ERP, ETRM, CRM, and SCADA systems. Infrastructure discussions cover pipeline capacity, reliability and right-of-way; regional transmission, distribution and generation investment; federal-land development models; and the commercial and regulatory structures needed to advance large-load projects. Utility service challenges include pipeline limitations, public perception, permitting, capital requirements, commercial structuring, cost allocation, reliability obligations, and protecting existing customers. A developers roundtable covers demand forecasts versus speculative projects, developer qualifications, speed-to-power and behind-the-meter strategies, gas procurement, community hurdles, and regulatory and policy issues. Other sessions address mobile gas delivery and virtual pipelines, including CNG/LNG solutions for remote or capacity-constrained markets. The keynote considers AI-driven electricity demand, gas and electric utility bottlenecks, regional load growth, and nuclear energy. A Texas-focused panel examines policy, technology, research, planning, permitting, investment, and cross-sector coordination for large-load development, including data centers and advanced manufacturing.

An intensive workshop on projected electricity demand and expanding the supply of natural resources used to generate power. Topics include natural gas, geothermal development and repurposing oil and gas assets; hydrogen, uranium, lithium and critical minerals; and water, environmental, storage, site-selection and regulatory considerations. Program discussions cover grid shortfalls and raw materials for electricity generation, solutions for increasing electricity supply, geothermal, and technology including ORC, sensors and small nuclear reactors. Other sessions address AI prompts for grid and behind-the-meter planning; lithium direct lithium extraction (DLE) and hydrogen technologies; regulatory and legislative factors affecting geothermal, critical minerals, low-carbon energy, grids and data centers; and mining and oil-and-gas intersections, including near-surface imaging and copper for electricity transmission. The program also includes an AI prompt clinic focused on water, the environment, science and regulations.