Operators Begin Considering Pumps on Older Subsea Fields

Abstract

Spotting oil wells on land is easy, just look for the pump jacks. They are a common sight because about 90% of the oil wells on land are on some kind of artificial lift. Don Underwood, director of subsea processing at FMC Technologies, cited that estimate to make the case that the same factors that make pumps standard equipment on land should increasingly apply to wellheads on the seabed. “If it is 90% onshore versus single digits under the ocean, there is growth potential,” he said. Realizing that potential has long proved elusive, made more so by the deep funk now in the offshore oil business. But he and others selling pumps sound upbeat about calls from potential customers looking at ways to add oil output without the cost of drilling wells. “The (oil) companies’ management is demanding gains to production … but they are not willing to go out and do enormous greenfield projects,” Underwood said. “The subsea playing field changed a lot after the oil crisis,” said Sven Olson, a senior consultant for Leistritz Advanced Technologies, which sells pumps made by Leistritz, a German manufacturing company, for oil industry use. Rather than major new field investments, oil companies are looking to add barrels by taking better care of existing assets. The two of them, who work for companies selling big, subsea pumps, use phrases like “enthused by the response we are getting,” “tipping point” for pump use, and Underwood went so far as to declare it a “golden age for subsea pumping.” To put that in perspective, a major upswing in this sector would not require a lot of orders. A 2016 survey of the market by Offshore magazine listed only 40 subsea boosting projects in the world, and 11 of those were classified as “abandoned/removed.” The number of working subsea systems that year rose to 17, with 12 projects at various stages of development, it said. In comparison, there are about 5,000 subsea wells, according to a panel discussion at the 2016 Offshore Technology Conference. The biggest cluster of new fields on the list is in the US Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Development in ultradeep water, such as Chevron’s Jack/St. Malo, have been equipped with pumps from the start. The goal is to sustain high production in water 7,000-ft deep from fields 25 miles apart to a floating production unit located in between. “We are using subsea boosting pumps at Jack/St. Malo, and other recent Lower Tertiary fields like Julia and Cascade- Chinook, also use subsea boosting,” said Stephen Thurston, vice president, Deepwater Exploration and Projects, Chevron North America Exploration and Production Company, adding “Folks are seeing the utility and value.” Those deepwater new field developments were approved before oil prices plunged and exploration and production (E&P) budgets shrank.