Impact of Fluid Properties on Electric Submersible Pumps (ESP) Performance and Run Life in a Well

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 pump
speed 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