To handle reliability challenges, redundant components should be installed as a backup. However, redundant components occupy limited space and consume power. Common failure modes must be avoided when specifying redundant components. In addition to equipment construction, engineers must address installation complexity and wellsite conditions. Simplifying the installation process ensures consistency, while mitigating risk and shortening rig time.
Simplification helps prevent monitoring-system failures, thereby improving success rates.
The application of rigorous product development and testing processes with concurrent reliability engineering and field service quality control has set the standard for dependable permanent monitoring systems. Use of these engineering processes has contributed to improved ESP reliability and longer run life. Recently, a Schlumberger GN4000 ESP installed in BP's Wytch Farm field, Dorset, set a U.K. record by pumping continuously for 10 years, excluding planned shut-down periods. With more than 2.6 million bbl of oil produced, the ESP's performance can be attributed to a combination of factors, including the equipment quality, the stable environment of Wytch Farm, and the manner in which the equipment was initially installed and subsequently operated. The advancements in downhole monitoring and data acquisition played a large role in the superior performance that achieved the ESP's record run.