Techbits: Artificial Lift Selection Discussed at Workshop
Authors: JPT staff _ 
Published: February 2015

Techbits

The SPE Applied Technology Workshop on “Artificial Lift Systems: Get the Maximum from Your Wells” was held 24–27 November 2013 in Phuket, Thailand. The workshop attracted 80 participants representing 32 organizations and 14 countries.

As oil and gas fields are depleted, artificial lift systems are often required to maintain delivery volumes and to maximize recovery. To handle adverse conditions, such as high-viscosity oil, high water cut, sand, low-reservoir pressures, high temperatures, low-productivity wells, and high-angle wells, special artificial lift systems may be required.

This workshop discussed state-of-the- art artificial lift technologies. Engineers from operating and service companies shared their field experience with artificial lift issues, such as operational efficiency, reliability, maintenance, cost, and extensibility, and also discussed their innovative solutions. An interactive session allowed participants to use the information presented and share their expertise and experience to select an artificial lift system for a sample well.

New Developments

The following advances in artificial lift were discussed:

Electric submersible pumps (ESPs) able to handle temperatures of up to 250°C

Progressive cavity pump (PCP) designs for handling heavy oil and sand

Insertable tubing-conveyed electric submersible PCP systems to reduce time, cost, and hazards of pump changes

Dynamic simulation (transient modeling) of downhole pumps, gas lift, and plunger lift

Advances in digital oilfield technology

A new method for solving the wave equation to model sucker rod pump performance

New American Petroleum Institute (API) standards (API 19G) in gas lift equipment

Submersible permanent magnet motors for PCPs for more efficient operation

Mechanistic modeling of ESP performance to predict the effect of oil viscosity and two-phase flow

Use of a vent branch from the main wellbore to allow gas to bypass downhole pumps in horizontal wells

Rigless ESP technology

Field Experience

Participants shared a variety of field experience:

ESPs applied in low-productivity and high-gas/high-liquid ratio wells

Issues with sucker rod pump run life

Using foam to revive dead wells via chemical injection through capillary strings

How lack of live flow rate measurements and surface flow rate control for gas injection wells makes gas lift network optimization more difficult

Failure investigations of ESPs showed the value of “digging deeper,” standard procedures, and a data collection system to find the true cause of ESP failures

How mean time to failure is not a good yardstick of ESP performance; a failure-free operating period with probability does a better job tracking ESP run life

Replacing ESPs and gas lift with sucker rod pumps as an onshore oil field in Thailand matured

Successful application of venturi orifice gas lift valves in offshore Sarawak, Malaysia, to stabilize flow; payout on the new valves was less than a day

A multiphase pump on an offshore platform successfully restarted several dead wells

Installation of ESP to replace gas lift in an offshore Sarawak oil field

Jet pumps revived dead wells and paid for themselves in less than 3 months