Abstract
The primary goal of every operator is to optimally recover reserves at minimal operating costs. Unfortunately, due to inherent primary drive mechanisms that may not be strong enough and poorly designed completion jewelries that increases the complexity of well configurations, most reservoir are not efficiently depleted. This study investigates the impact of fluid properties on electric submersible pumps (ESP) performance and run life in a well. It was observed that the pump speed increases with increase in API gravities and vice-versa. However, decrease in pump speed was observed with crudes having high API gravity from wells with high water-cut (HBSW). High water-cut increases the viscosity of the crude and thus decreases the pump speed. The pump speed also increased as the GOR increases, howbeit, decreased as the GOR exceeds a certain optimum value due to cavitation. The pump intake pressure and the production rate were also investigated. The higher the intake pressure, the higher the pump speed and thus, the higher the production. Well specific models for real-time ESP performance prediction were also developed for each property against the pumpspeed and they exhibited cubic relationships. It was also observed that the quality of the crude significantly affects the performance of ESP’s and therefore, must be checked to prevent early failure and short run life.
 Keywords: Electric submersible pumps, Fluid properties, Run life, Performance, Failure rate
Highlights
Data obtained from a field operated with electric submersible pumps (ESP) in Niger Delta shows that outside the mechanical and electrical component failures that account for about 79% of the failures of ESP’s, 21% of these failures are attributed to unknown factors collectively categorized as others as shown in
This study investigates the impact of fluid properties on electric submersible pumps (ESP) performance and run life in a well
The high failure rate of ESP’s had been attributed to mainly mechanical and electrical in nature, but data obtained has shown that whereas the mechanical and electrical components are the most significant and constitutes about 79% of failures, other factors collectively called unknown factors play major roles in inhibiting the efficient application of ESPs
Summary
It has been discovered that failure in ESP systems cannot be attributed to only mechanical and electrical operational components alone but can result from a combination of several factors such as data integrity for the design of ESP, reservoir inflow plugging, fluid properties and pump intake pressure (Baillie, 2002, Vandevier, 2010, Brown, 1980, Ofuchi et al, 2017, Amaral et al, 2009). Data obtained from a field operated with ESP in Niger Delta shows that outside the mechanical and electrical component failures that account for about 79% of the failures of ESP’s, 21% of these failures are attributed to unknown factors collectively categorized as others as shown in
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