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Rigless ESP implementations
Current
- Alaska
- Angola
- Brunei
- Saudi Arabia
Future
- Canada
- Gulf of Mexico
- Norwegian Continental Shelf
- Republic of Congo
Engineering awards
’Best Production Technology’ Award, 2020, World Oil
October 15, 2020, HOUSTON — 
The 2020 World Oil Awards recognized the upstream oil and gas industry’s leading innovations and thought leaders, in a first-of-its-kind virtual event.
This year, more than 270 nominations were submitted from over 90 companies in more than a dozen countries around the world. Eighty-four finalists were selected, and the award winners were hand-picked by the World Oil Awards advisory board as this year’s most groundbreaking industry developments.
Honorees received awards in 18 categories, encompassing the full breadth of the upstream industry. Today’s innovations, many of which would have seemed far-fetched a generation ago, are enabling operators to find and produce hydrocarbons more safely, economically and efficiently.
In this year’s ‘Best Production Technology’ category, AccessESP won for their UpCable ESP Power Delivery System. The AccessESP UpCable™ ESP Power Delivery System is a new design that extends ESP power cable run life. It avoids premature ESP system failures that are frequently caused by vulnerabilities in the power system, harsh environmental operating conditions, or human error during installation. Cable failures amount to one-third of all industry well failures, and this cable mitigates that condition. UpCable is designed to complement the longevity of AccessESP wireline-retrievable ESP systems. Presently, in some offshore locations, changing an ESP can be around $50 million per well. This cable, combined with the WRESP system, may reduce the Non-Productive-Time and Loss-of-Production volume impact by 90% in many instances.
To see the complete awards program, including product introductions and acceptance speeches by each award recipient, visit the following link: https://youtu.be/aI-JFoCbzzI
The 2020 World Oil Awards were generously sponsored by Schlumberger, SI Group, Aramco, Baker Hughes, Halliburton, Clariant, Siemens Energy, Emerson, and QRI.
World Oil, the leading media and marketing intelligence brand for the upstream oil and gas sector, has a global reach and has been published by Gulf Energy Information for more than 104 years. Additional information on the World Oil Awards program can be found at www.WorldOil.com/Awards.
Press releases
AccessESP Announces 2021 Customer-focused Organization
Expanded team focuses on optimizing ESP performance
HOUSTON, TX (December 17, 2020) – AccessESP, a provider of rigless electric submersible pump (ESP) conveyance solutions for the global oil and gas industry, has announced a new organization for 2021.
Greg Nutter has been appointed Vice President Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Ed Sheridan will continue as Vice President Middle East and North Africa.
William Standifird, Vice President Sales and Marketing, will lead commercial activities in emerging rigless ESP markets including North America, South America, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Asia Pacific.
After five years with AccessESP serving as Vice President and 37 years in the oilfield, John Algeroy will retire December 31, 2020.
Keith Russell has joined AccessESP as Chief Technical Advisor for Rigless Solutions. He has 30 years’ experience working in ESP and completions product development, sales and operations.
Lorena Galindez has joined AccessESP as Rigless ESP Performance Advisor supporting operators in Latin America. Her previous Schlumberger career includes extensive well intervention expertise.
AccessESP’s David Malone commented, “We have reorganized and expanded our customer-facing team to better serve the industry with our new technologies that bring exceptional reservoir performance, significant workover savings and carbon reduction efficiencies to production operations.”
About AccessESP
AccessESP delivers advanced technologies that help oil and gas operators reduce intervention costs, maximize well productivity and enhance reservoir recovery rates by achieving the technical limit in ESP performance. With several years of failure-free performance, GoRigless™ ESP and UpCable™ technologies are proven to reduce risk and lower total cost of operations in high-value offshore and onshore wells. Operators who partner with AccessESP benefit from exclusive access to advanced UpTime™ Testing Services and to ways to reduce greenhouse emissions through the company’s GoGreen™ initiative.
Contact
AccessESP
13215 N Promenade Blvd
Stafford, TX 77477
USA
+1 (713) 589-2599 | | accessesp.com
The Magic of Rigless: North Slope ESPs Pump Sandy Thick Oil
ABOVE: Grant Dornan (third from the left in back row) led a recent West Sak Team supporting several pump teardowns for failure analysis at the Summit ESP shop in Tulsa, Okla. (Back row left to right) Samar Cheblac (AccessESP), Doug Valentine, Grant Dornan, Pete Fox, Brian Norton (Summit ESP) and Dexter Ellexson (Summit ESP). (Front row left to right) Courtney Gallo, Marina Krysinski, Sydney Autry and Jacklyn Carson.
Imagine a big sand box. Your mission is to move thick fluids through the loose sand into a pump turning at 3,000 rpm or higher.
“Things plug up, things wear out,” said Pete Fox, Staff Petroleum Engineer at ConocoPhillips Alaska. “The biggest challenge is the reservoir itself.”
Welcome to West Sak, a shallow reservoir in the Kuparuk River Unit on Alaska’s North Slope. The reservoir is 14 miles wide by 28 miles long and has been producing viscous oil since 1998.
“Viscous oil is not an easy flowing fluid,” Fox said. “It’s an emulsified goo. Pumping it effectively is a continuing challenge.”
The goo-and-sand problem isn’t new. In the late 1990s, John Patterson, then a production engineer at heritage company ARCO, was confronted with it.
“We found a lot of oil, yet getting it out of the ground in West Sak was not easy,” said Principal Artificial Lift Coordinator Grant Dornan, of Patterson’s dilemma. “How do we do it affordably, profitably?”
Patterson and team championed a vision for a hybrid electric submersible pump system (ESP). The motor and cable were conventionally deployed with the production tubing. The pump sections, which are subject to abrasive wear, were replaceable with just a wireline unit for quick servicing.
“In a perfect world, the well has enough pressure and energy to produce,” said Global Production ESP Subject Matter Expert Richard Delaloye. “You open the valve for more oil and close it for less, but as the well ages or if the reservoir doesn’t have enough initial energy, you need to boost it. This is one form of doing it.”
ESP Artificial Lift is one component of the overall strategy to capture the difficult but plentiful West Sak oil.
Today, ConocoPhillips and AccessESP have partnered to further develop the ESP system. The AccessESP system reduces costs by not requiring rigs, adds revenue by accessing difficult oil, and keeps ConocoPhillips on the cutting edge of innovation.
“The rigless ESP wells on the North Slope allow us to clean out sand in multilateral wells far below the set depth of the motor without performing a costly rig workover,” said Senior Production Engineer Marina Krysinski. “It’s truly a game-changer.”
ESPs have been around for 90 years. Heritage company, Phillips Petroleum, provided venture capital to launch the global ESP industry. Reda Pump Company, based in Bartlesville, Okla., originated from the ESP.
New breakthroughs began in 2005 when ConocoPhillips Alaska funded a small business located in the U.K. called Artificial Lift Company, ALC. Selected for its expertise in electric motors, ALC developed the first prototype rigless ESP system. After multiple upgrades and variations, the rigless ESP technology became commercially available in 2014 with the original company rebranded as AccessESP.
West Sak sand will plug off a wellbore below the pump and above it.
“Traditionally, to repair that would require a rig workover costing millions of dollars,” said Access ESP’s Matt Walker. “With a rigless ESP, a coiled-tubing drilling unit can do it in days for 10 percent of the cost.”
When older wells become choked with sand today, maintenance can turn to much lighter gear than a six-million-pound rig. “The ESP is deployed using a pickup truck and a crane with a wireline,” said Walker.
“You run it in and out of the well with the equivalent of a big open-faced fishing reel,” said Delaloye. “It allows installation and well maintenance without the $200,000 to $300,000 a day cost of a drilling rig. You can do maintenance affordably in a matter of days, instead of waiting six to nine months for a drilling rig,” he said.
Development of the technology involved the expertise of AccessESP and the vision of ConocoPhillips. Multiple ConocoPhillips teams collaborated: the Emerging Technology Group, the Lower 48 Business Unit and the Alaska Business Unit. Those teams made innovations in partnership with contractors AccessESP, Baker Hughes and Halliburton.
“The development of this unique solution is a direct result of our inclusive company culture,” said Fiord West Subsurface Supervisor Mike Driscoll. “It fosters team-building across the global company with our contractors.”
The affordable and easier maintenance of wells also extends the scheduling of a workover. “On a given well, you’re changing your heavy workover interval on the order of 10 years instead of four,” Walker said.
Several major oil and gas producers in high-cost operating environments are now using the AccessESP system.
“Commitment from ConocoPhillips allowed AccessESP to develop an industry-changing technology,” said AccessESP President and CEO Dave Malone. “We have expanded our operations from Alaska to West Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.”
Back in West Sak, eight ESPs are working in the ground, and some have been running for up to six years. Given the success, multiple additional units are planned.
“We know these pumps will wear out,” said Delaloye. “The magic of rigless is that we can replace the pump affordably, in a matter of two to three days, and get back to producing oil.”
Data sheets and case studies
AccessESP Company Profile
GoRigless™ ESP System
UpCable™ Power Delivery System
UpTime™ Testing Services
GoGreen™ Initiative
FAQs
How long has AccessESP been in business?
The company was formed in 2004, and in December 2020 completed its fifth-generation permanent magnet motor design, the A450 1200. Other recent innovations include the UpCable Power Delivery System, UpTime Testing Services and the GoGreen Initiative.
How reliable is the technology?
The current GoRigless ESP System is entering its seventh year of failure-free operation on offshore and land wells. The commercialization of the UpCable Power Delivery System in June 2020 promises much longer run life with extensive qualification tests indicating an 80% probability of surviving more than 10 years. Launched in December 2020, the UpTime Testing Service offers full system integration, full stack tests conducted with a unique flow loop, and a test well capable of flowing 20,000 BWPD. Another reliability enhancement was achieved with the company’s investment in advanced eddy current dynamometers to ensure ultra-reliable performance from AccessESP permanent magnet motors.
What types of wells, casing size, etc.?
Any offshore or land well can benefit that has 4.5- to 7-in. casing with production greater than 500 BOPD, high intervention costs and longer-than-expected ESP pump run life. The next milestone for deployment will be subsea wells. Studies to date indicate no changes will be required to light intervention vessels, and minor changes will be required for wellhead connections. Operators who have studied the GoRigless ESP subsea application expect that the ability to retrieve and change out pumps with slickline will create millions in savings.
Where have you installed systems?
Alaska, Angola, Brunei and Saudi Arabia. 2021 implementations are likely to include Canada, Republic of Congo, the Gulf of Mexico, the Norwegian Continental Shelf and other areas.
Who are your customers?
Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Saudi Aramco, Shell and Total have all benefitted from AccessESP technology. In 2021 the number of companies adopting the technology is expected to double.
How do you make a business case for this technology?
AccessESP engineers have developed several economic value analysis calculators to estimate the cost savings, production boost and acceleration of operating cash flow. The input variables are assumed oil price, OPEX/bbl, production forecast, conventional ESP run life, and intervention cost and frequency. The outputs are intervention savings, estimated reduction in deferred production, discounted cash flow, NPV and IRR. Models for gas lift vs ESP, GHG emission reductions, and how ESP system run life improves with more reliable motors and cables are also available.
How do you compare to other technologies?
The competing technologies that attempt to deliver a rigless ESP delivery system are quite different because the systems are less reliable and have significant shortcomings. The AccessESP approach is unique in several critical ways:
- Fewer wellsite personnel are required for installation and workover so risk is reduced.
- Much greater reliability of the motor and cable power delivery system eliminates up to half the usual system failures.
- Slickline conveyance means far fewer heavy interventions, saving tens of millions over the life of the well.
- Much less deferred production means significantly higher accelerated cash flow.
- The only single-section high-horsepower permanent magnet motor enables slickline installation/retrieval because the equipment can be deployed within a wireline lubricator.
- With a one-section motor, 60 percent of the connections are reduced as compared to tandem or triple-stacked induction motors.
- The ability to deploy a dry-mate connection with the first well completion allows future flexibility with the pump, motor, seal and gauges—all conveyed with slickline runs.
- The system allows fullbore access for well cleanouts, eases chemical injection and allows live interventions. No other technology matches these capabilities.
- The spliceless cable and power delivery system is a completely new design. Tests demonstrate it is capable of lasting as long as the production tubing.
What’s the best way to adopt your technology?
AccessESP recommends Networking Meetings to introduce the technology to a broad group of stakeholders, including management, HSE, procurement and completion, production and reservoir engineers. A team with a wide array of expertise is needed to evaluate the system’s ability to improve drawdown to boost production with the added benefit of lower greenhouse gas emissions. After the Networking Meeting, a Value Chain Lab can help by allowing a small number of stakeholders to conduct a deep technical dive with a detailed economic analysis. During this session an ESP Technical Limit scorecard can be developed to focus the team on three to five KPIs that will form a business case for the technology. Prior to installation, the chosen system should be fully tested at the UpTime Performance Test Center.