Abstract
Artificial lift is a vital part of the life of many oil wells worldwide. Using several artificial lift methods can prolong the life of the wells and increase oil recovery significantly. One of the most applied artificial lift methods nowadays is the electrical submersible pump (ESP). This artificial lift method has the ability to handle large volumes of hydrocarbons and is applicable under many conditions in both offshore and onshore reservoirs. Even though ESP has been applied extensively for many years, it still suffers from many failures due to electrical, mechanical, and operational problems associated with the ESP downhole assembly. Understanding the main reasons behind ESP failures and how to rapidly and effectively avoid and mitigate these failures is imperative to reduce cost and damage and improve operational and rig-personal safety. This research performs a comprehensive review on ESP failure mechanisms and analyzes these failures in order to determine the optimum conditions to operate the ESP. This can help minimize and avoid these failures. Also, should these failures occur, the research proposes several mitigation methods for each failure based on analysis of different field cases worldwide.
Highlights
In order to increase recovery from oil reservoirs, several methods are implemented to support the reservoir pressure and help mobilize the crude oil (Gonzalez et al 2015; Graham et al 2017; Knight and Bebak 2000)
To reduce the problems associated with electrical submersible pump (ESP), it is important to understand the failure mechanism of the ESP string and the factors that can increase the risk of failure of the downhole components
Based on the previous ESP case studies, the ESP failures can be grouped into three main categories, namely: electrical failures, mechanical failures, and operational failures
Summary
In order to increase recovery from oil reservoirs, several methods are implemented to support the reservoir pressure and help mobilize the crude oil (Gonzalez et al 2015; Graham et al 2017; Knight and Bebak 2000). Artificial lift involves utilization of a mechanical method to displace the crude oil from the wellbore to the surface (Cui et al 2016; Rushby and Denholm 2013; Stavale 2001; Wensheng et al 2012; Zhu et al 2016). ESP is usually used in high flow rate wells (Ballarini et al 2017; Guindi et al 2017; Hamzah et al 2017; Refai et al 2013; Seczon and Sagalovskiy 2013). It can be applied in offshore and onshore wells at various depths and under different wellbore and fluid conditions through adjustments to the ESP string. Based on the previous ESP case studies, the ESP failures can be grouped into three main categories, namely: electrical failures, mechanical failures, and operational failures
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