Halliburton introduced its Integrated Computational Element (ICE CoreSM) fluid analysis service Oct. 1 at the Society of Petroleum Engineers Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, the company said in a news release.

ICE Core technology works via light shining through downhole fluids and then through ICE Core sensors, the release said. Each sensor is programmed to recognize the chemical nature – or optical fingerprint – of a specific fluid component, such as methane, ethane, propane, aromatics, saturates or water. Measuring the intensity of light passing through any one sensor indicates the presence and proportion of a particular chemical component within the overall fluid.

The technology relies on the ruggedness and simplicity of photometric detection, not spectroscopy, Halliburton said in the release. As a result, ICE Core technology does not require a computer to perform calculations on an optical spectrum. Each sensor is designed to respond specifically to the fingerprint of the selected analyte, using all of the useful information in the optical spectrum.

Halliburton said its new technology is well suited for downhole fluid analysis, including applications in deep water, exploration, sample validation, fluid analysis between samples, where flow assurance is an issue, when mapping water floods, when determining reservoir connectivity, when determining compositional grading of reservoir fluids, and to see if fluids are changing.