THE IMPORTANCE OF ELECTRICAL SUBMERSIBLE PUMPS (ESPs) IN MAXIMIZING OIL RECOVERY by Mazen H.Modahi Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering Major Subject: Petroleum Engineering at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia July, 2012 © Copyright by Mazen H. Modahi, 2012 DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY Faculty of Engineering Petroleum Engineering The undersigned hereby certify that they have read and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate Studies for acceptance a thesis entitled “THE IMPORTANCE OF ELECTRICAL SUBMERSIBLE PUMPS IN MAXIMIZING OIL RECOVERY” by Mazen H. Modahi in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Petroleum Engineering. Dated: July 11, 2012 Supervisor: _________________________________ Readers: _________________________________ _________________________________ _________________________________ Moderator: _________________________________ ii DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY DATE: July 11, 2012 AUTHOR: Mazen H. Modahi TITLE: The Importance of Electrical Submersible Pumps in Maximizing Oil Recovery DEPARTMENT OR SCHOOL: Department of Process Engineering & Applied Science DEGREE: MEng CONVOCATION: October YEAR: 2012 Permission is herewith granted to Dalhousie University to circulate and to have copied for non-commercial purposes, at its discretion, the above title upon the request of individuals or institutions. I understand that my thesis will be electronically available to the public. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the thesis nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author’s written permission. The author attests that permission has been obtained for the use of any copyrighted material appearing in the thesis (other than the brief excerpts requiring only proper acknowledgement in scholarly writing), and that all such use is clearly acknowledged. _______________________________ Signature of Author iii DEDICATION PAGE I would like to dedicate this work to my parents, my wife, my little baby girl and all of my brothers and sisters who have supported me during the course of my project. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................................. VIII LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................... IX ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................. XI LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED .............................................................................................. XII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................. XIV CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 1 1.1 ARTIFICIAL LIFTING ............................................................................................................. 1 1.2 SHORT HISTORY OF ESP APPLICATION ..................................................................... 4 1.3 ADVANTAGES AND LIMITATIONS ................................................................................ 5 CHAPTER TWO: THE PRODUCTION SYSTEM ANALYSIS ............................................. 6 2.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 6 2.4 VOGEL’S IPR CORRELATION .......................................................................................... 12 2.5 INFLOW PERFORMANCE RELATIONSHIPS ............................................................. 13 CHAPTER THREE: ESP COMPONENTS AND THEIR OPERATIONAL FEATURES ..................................................................................................................................................................... 14 3.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 14 3.2 SUBMERSIBLE PUMP ........................................................................................................... 15 3.3 PROTECTOR (SEAL SECTION) ........................................................................................ 16 3.4 SUBMERSIBLE MOTOR ...................................................................................................... 18 v 3.5 GAS SEPARATORS ................................................................................................................ 19 3.6 CABLES ....................................................................................................................................... 20 3.7 SWITCHBOARDS .................................................................................................................... 22 3.8 TRANSFORMERS .................................................................................................................... 23 3.9 JUNCTION BOX ....................................................................................................................... 24 CHAPTER FOUR: ESP INSTALLATIONS ................................................................................ 25 4.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 25 4.2 TUBING DEPLOYED INSTALLATIONS ....................................................................... 25 4.2.1 Producing From Single Zone ......................................................................................... 25 4.3 ALTERNATIVE DEPLOYED INSTALLATIONS ........................................................ 28 4.3.1 Cable Suspended ESPs .................................................................................. 28 4.3.2 Coiled Tubing (CT) Installations ................................................................... 29 4.3.2.1 Conventional Installation With Cable Led Outside CT String ............. 30 4.3.2.2 Conventional Installation With Cable Led Inside CT String ................ 31 4.3.2.3 Inverted ESP Units ................................................................................ 32 CHAPTER FIVE: COMPARISON OF LIFT METHODS ....................................................... 33 5.1 TYPES OF ARTIFICIAL LIFT METHODS ..................................................................... 33 5.1.1 Sucker Rod Pumping ..................................................................................... 33 5.1.2 Electrical Submersible Pumping ................................................................... 34 5.1.3 Hydraulic Pumping ........................................................................................ 35 5.1.4 Gas Lift .......................................................................................................... 37 vi 5.2 SELECTION METHOD .......................................................................................................... 38 CHAPTER SIX: CASE STUDY ...................................................................................................... 45 6.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 45 6.2 DATA PREPARATION .......................................................................................................... 45 6.3 FORMATION PROPERTIES CONTOUR MAP FOR ZONE # 1 ............................. 46 6.4 FORMATION PROPERTIES CONTOUR MAP FOR ZONE # 2 ............................. 48 6.5 RESULTS (FINDINGS) .......................................................................................................... 50 CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSIONS .......................................................................................... 64 7.1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS .................................................... 64 7.2 RECOMMENDATIONS ......................................................................................................... 65 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................................... 66 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1ESP advantages and limitations .............................................................................. 5 Table 2 Voltage drop per amp. In cables .......................................................................... 21 Table 3 Productivity conditions to choose method of artificial lift .................................. 38 Table 4 Depth condition to choose a method of artificial lift ........................................... 39 Table 5 Common problems affecting the choice of artificial method .............................. 39 Table 6 Comparison of different artificial methods .......................................................... 41 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1ESP system configuration...................................................................................... 3 Figure 2 The node points of a flowing well in a production system ................................... 7 Figure 3An example of an IPR and TIC curve for a flowing well ..................................... 9 Figure 4Constant PI concept shown in a well inflow performance .................................. 11 Figure 5Vogel’s inflow performance curve .....................................................................