Essay: Use of ESP

Recent developments in the oil industry have led to renewed interest in artificial lift methods such as, electrical submersible pumps (ESP’s), gas lift and sucker-rod pump. When the oil is being extracted from the ground is due to the difference among the reservoir and well-bore pressure by producing naturally or using artificial lift mechanisms. In order for the well to be able to produce oil naturally, artificial lift systems need to be set up. To increase the production rate of oil wells in order to be produced economically, ESP’s has had the highest production potential compared to other artificial lift techniques. According to (Fleshman and Lekic 1999:50) “ESPs is an efficient and reliable artificial-lift pump for lifting moderate to high volumes of fluids from wellbores to raise the producing life of oil wells”. Oil and gas service companies report that ESP has supported 60% of global crude oil production (Ariful et al 2015). ESP has improved the productivity for developing countries that produce oil with ESP techniques. From an economic perspective, ESP is viewed as having a positive effect because it can raise the production to meet the energy demand for developed countries. Around 90% of the oil fields in the world have used artificial lift technology while just 10% of oil fields still produce naturally. This essay will evaluate the efficiency of the use ESP as a method of extracting oil from the ground in some developing countries. Firstly, it will consider the possibility of increasing productivity that might be acquired by ESP’s, and then it will consider the costs of ESPs maintenance after installing the systems of ESP surveillance inside the wells during production operations.
ESP designs have provided an important opportunity to increase the productivity of oil in some developing countries such as, Nigeria and Libya. This is because ESP systems have shown excellence in producing high volumes of fluid from productive oil reservoirs that could not produce naturally. In the last 20 years the maximum rate for ESP pumps were 1,000 barrels per day. In order to meet the increased energy demand in the oil markets that has led some large companies to update and upgrade the production capacity for old pumps to suit the requirement of oil markets. For example, in 2009 Takacs mentioned that one of the manufacturers has offered ESP capable of producing 90,000 barrels per day, as well as these pumps can operate to lift the oil from wells up from the depths over 15,000 feet. The expectation of production is more accurately with ESP designs regarding to some results in Libya and Nigeria .With achieving the same production rate can use ESP’s in various wells including vertical, horizontal and deviated wells. The advantages might be taken in both sides on and offshore with ESP usage. For instance, Appah (2015) stated that Nigeria has generated the highest cross profit by ESP techniques in terms of economic because the production rate has improved in GT field in Nigeria since has installed this type of artificial lift. However, ESP’s seem to be the remarkable choice, pump failures might occur after a short time from starting from production Stanghell, K (2009). This means ESP’s have limited lifetime to produce continuously without mechanical problem. For example, David (2010) emphasised that Sarir field in Libya has changed 80 pumps in one year due to some failures related to ESP motors. There are also two factors will cause some issues to the run life of the ESP systems such as, sand production and a large amount of gas that produce it with oil. For this reason ESP is not applicable to multiple reservoirs particularly sand formation that leads to reduction of ESP efficiency. It is suggested that the economic growth in oil industry has increased by using ESP techniques as a method in producing oil in Nigeria and Libya. There is no doubt that ESP methods have enhanced the productivity in some developing countries with considering some issues that could affect in increasing production in order to be more efficient.
In light of recent development in production processes by ESP methods, it is becoming extremely difficult to ignore the existence of having appropriate ESP surveillance systems inside the wells because such intelligent equipment has brought many advantages regarding to Saudi Aramco Company such as, reduce operating cost of ESP, increase the running life of ESP and maximize production Almaghlouth (2013). Historically, before installing smart apparatus that could measure the production operations by ESP inside the wells, ESP assessment necessitated staff visits by engineers to the well site to gather the data. Today, Amer (2013) points out that monitoring ESP by utilizing intelligent equipment into the well have diminished operations cost. To avoid early failures in order to increase the run life of ESP. For this reason, the productivity might be increased due to the continuous of producing oil without maintenance issues. The use of ESP surveillance techniques helps the operator to optimize the production rate for continuous pump operation. With receiving quick data that appears to the Engineer in computer screens can diagnose any premature problems that may occur. Even more so, new technique may not require a lot of workers to cope with ESP during production time. After installing ESP inside the well, it can be monitored by certain software from long distance that will control all production activities. For example, Doughty (2014) emphasised that the wells equipped with ESP designs, this monitoring capacity relieve many potential failures, regarding to Saudi Aramco companies results in some oil fields in Saudi that ESP’s with surveillance systems inside the wells has developed the productivity and prolonged the run life of ESP. In this situation, operating maintenance cost has lowered because the surveillance systems have led to reduction of ESP failures. Although, the ESP surveillance systems has generated a great results in Saudi by Aramc Company, but it is not proper for deeply wells due to some consequences in certain field in Saudi. This can be illustrated by Dvid (2009) that Aramco Company has altered 20 pumps that have worked with controlling methods of ESP and all these pumps were installed in deeply wells over than 10000ft. The information will flow slowly to the engineers in control room due to the high pressure in such deep wells. The Maintenance costs for running and pulling ESPs are extremely high when the pump failures are being occurred in deeply wells. Such jobs might be taken two or three days in order to lift the pumps from subservice to service. Additionally, workover rigs are required to be run in the well location. This means the company demands to pay for the ESP staff and daily rate for workover rig, as well as there is no special warehouse in most of oil fields that can repair any simple mechanical problem related to the ESP motor. In this way, the cost might be increased. It is found that the performance of ESP has enhanced with increasing depend on controlling systems inside the wells in terms of productivity, the running life and operating cost in some oil fields in Saudi that follow Aramco company. It believes that Utilize of downhole sensors has rapidly widened as an effective tool for improving ESP run-life performance and reducing operating cost of ESP maintenance.
This essay has examined how the efficiency of the use ESP as a method of extracting oil from the ground in some developing countries has increased the productivity compared to other artificial lift techniques. It is suggested that ESP designs can create additional value for the economic, since they have improved the production in oil industry and thus increase profitability. Although the ESP appears to be a remarkable choice for developing countries to enhance their production, it is becoming more significant in the development of the oil production with installing surveillance systems inside the wells during production time of ESP. It has been demonstrated how this usage might diminish the maintenance costs by increasing the running life of ESP. For example, Aramco campany in Saudi has reduced the pump failures and has maximized the production for its oil fields due to the accuracy of ESP surveillance systems and it is easy to reveal the mechanical issues related to ESP motor. This technique should address issues that might affect on increasing production such as, sand formation and a large amount of gases that produce it with oil in order to be the ESP designs more efficient.