Under the patronage of His Excellency Salim Al Aufi, Undersecretary, Ministry of Oil and Gas, Oman

SPE Symposium: ESP Journey to the Future 19 - 20 Feb 2020 Sheraton Oman Hotel Muscat, Oman

Agenda

Wednesday, February 19

08:00 - 08:40
08:40 - 08:45
08:45 - 09:30
Symposium Opening Ceremony
Speaker(s) His Excellency Salim Al Aufi, Ministry of Oil and Gas, Oman; Shauna Noonan, Occidental Petroleum: Atika Al-Bimani, PDO

Welcome Address

Keynote Speaker:

His Excellency, Salim Al Aufi
Undersecretary
Ministry of Oil and Gas, Oman

Speaker(s):

Shauna Noonan
2020 SPE President
Occidental Petroleum

Atika Al-Bimani
Symposium Chair
PDO

09:30 - 09:55
09:55 - 11:00
Panel 1: Next Big Step Change in ESPs
Moderator(s) Abdullah Al Saygh, Ministry of Oil and Gas, Oman; Najeeb Alharthy, Oman Shell

The last few decades have seen a spike in the number of ESPs deployed globally making ESPs the preferred artificial lift mechanism for most operators. The technology has evolved to meet the demand by expanding its operating envelope whilst increasing reliability. The industry is now expecting the next big step change which will take ESPs to new frontiers. Panelists are asked to present on the latest technological advancement in ESPs with a focus on successful deployments with reliabilities matching or exceeding what has been reached to date. New technologies are often challenged economically and so any recommendations on how to reach a win-win for both suppliers and operators throughout the life cycle of the well are welcomed.

Eugene Bespalov
Product/Domain Champion
Artificial Lift, Schlumberger

Cyril Girard
General Manager
Artificial Lift Excellence AS

Sandy Williams
Founder
Artificial Lift Performance Ltd (ALP)

11:00 - 11:30
11:30 - 12:30
Session 1: Technology and R&D
Session Chairpersons Mohammed Al-Ali, Saudi Aramco; Alexander Gorlov, Shell Kuwait

Research and Development plays a critical role in the innovation process. It’s necessarily an investment in technology and future capabilities which is transformed into new products, processes, and services. ESP particularly needs to develop new technologies addressing the constant challenges from end users in improving the reliability of equipment and in solving problems related to the optimization of oil production. Faster, more reliable and cheaper, that's what becomes the main requirement in our time in the development of new technologies, but this balance is unlikely to be achieved in full without R&D. Rigless and slim ESPs, ultra-high-speed pumps are just a few examples of these technologies.

12:30 - 13:30
13:30 - 14:30
Session 2: Big Data and AI in ESP
Session Chairpersons Atika Al-Bimani, Petroleum Development Oman; Najeeb Alharthy, Oman Shell

While the industry is seeing a healthy increase in the number of ESPs deployed, the same cannot be said for the capability of Engineers to manage the increased workload. The lower for longer oil prices that we have experienced over the last decade has hurt our ability to retain and recruit technically competent people. This has created the need for change in how our technical professionals do their work. Speakers are requested to present on how big data and artificial intelligence has enabled better surveillance and failure prediction. Additionally, what are latest advancements in remote monitoring of continuously flowing and intermittent flowing wells.

14:30 - 15:30
Session 3: Electrical Challenges and Solutions/Mitigation
Session Chairpersons Amer Al-Hinai, Sultan Qaboos University; Sandy Williams, Artificial Lift Performance

Electrical Submersible Pumps (ESP) are one of the most reliable and efficient ways among artificial lift techniques for oil production. There are major challenges facing ESP operation that limit the optimal utilization of such equipment. Among these challenges are ESP failures associated with electrical and mechanical components. Such failures might be related to equipment design, while others could be due to power quality problems, surface equipment, or downhole electrical components. In order to closely understand ESP electrical failures and to come up with proper mitigations, there is a need to have access to downhole measurements of the electrical parameters, such as downhole voltage and current, using downhole sensors. In addition, energy consumption and ESP efficiency are one of the tracks to be discussed in this session. Similarly, utilizing renewable energy to power ESP, including solar energy, could be another venue for discussion.  

15:30 - 16:00
16:00 - 17:00
Session 4: ESP Run Life Enhancement Case Studies
Session Chairpersons Ahmed Naabi, Daleel Petroleum; Mohammed Jaber Al-Herz, Alkhorayef Petroleum

“While the population of ESPs in oil industry has been increasing day by day, their reliability to continue operating smoothly in different reservoir environment is very important. Longer running time for ESPs with controlled failure rate is an ultimate goal for both operators and service providers, especially with lease type of contracts. There are many technical challenges for ESPs that may lead to short run life including but not limited to: gas, corrosion, solids & scale build up, high temperature…etc. Being able to overcome these issues can lead to better ESP run life.

Areas for possible RL improvement may include proper ESP candidate selection, good ESP design, adequate & cost effective material selection, improved installation practices, close eye monitoring and optimization throughout ESP operating period and perform detailed failure analysis.

This session is meant to go through some case studies on ESP run life enhancement and presenters to share experience to others on how successfully managed to improve their ESP run life and reduce failure rate, thus produce oil at lower cost and controlled oil deferment.”

17:00 - 17:10

Thursday, February 20

08:15 - 08:50
08:50 - 09:00
09:00 - 10:00
Panel 2: ESP Contract Models
Moderator(s) Hussain Al Noumani, Petroleum Development Oman; Fouad Eid, Apergy

There are many ESP contract models in use today around the world between Operating Companies and Services Providers.  These include but are not limited to the following:

  • Product sale for both surface and downhole equipment.
  • Product sale for surface equipment and lease for downhole equipment.
  • Lease of surface and downhole equipment.
  • Product sale of surface equipment and of downhole equipment only after pulling out.
  • Multi AL type contract for the life of the well.

Each type of contract model will undoubtedly have its advantages and disadvantages depending on the operating conditions, field, and well location.  These contract models include differing KPI’s, ESP run life management procedures, economic selection of ESP’s, inventory management procedures, and well life cycle cost considerations.

Taking into account the above contract models, their respective considerations, and the oil price scenario that exist today, how do Services Companies continue to find profit in order to re-invest in new technologies and enhanced run life capabilities, so that Operators can continue to improve ROI and NPV throughout their fields?

Wadieh Asfour
Artificial Lift Engineering Lead
Occidental Oman

Anton Shakirov
CEO and Co-founder
Lex Submersible Pumps

Cyril Girard
General Manager
Artificial Lift Excellence AS

10:00 - 11:00
11:00 - 12:00
Session 5: Unconventional Reservoir Applications and Smart Completions
Session Chairpersons Session Chairs: Fouad Eid, Apergy; Jasim Al Jabri, Occidental Oman
  • Electrical Submersible PCP
  • Hybrid Applications- ESP gas lift, Rod driven ESP’s, ESP Jet pump

Unconventional reserves such as the Bakken and Permian basins are employing a variety of new artificial lift technologies at their well sites.  These reservoir developments have employed artificial lift technologies at different intervals throughout the life of the reservoir.  Most often, lifting liquids from the well to allow the gas to flow using its own energy, but today some methods are also aiding in lifting the gas. Artificial lift approaches fall into two categories: “energy-added methods and reservoir energy methods.”

Energy-added methods: use external energy to lift fluids to the surface, and include electrical submersible pumps (ESPs), gas-lift, jet-pumps and rod/beam-pumps

Reservoir energy methods: use the pressure in the reservoir to lift fluids to the surface, reservoir energy methods include intermitters, plunger-lift, foam-lift and velocity strings.

Operating companies that are successful in the unconventionals are the ones that get artificial lift right. Artificial lift needs to be considered upfront for any development and not as an after-thought.

This session explores the different types of artificial lift that can be employed throughout the life of an unconventional reservoir and the emerging artificial lift technologies that are changing the way we produce and maximize gain from these reservoirs

12:00 - 13:00
13:00 - 14:30
Session 6: ESP Standards and Quality Assurance – Breakout Session
Moderator(s) Cyril Girard, Artificial Lift Excellence; Muhammad Z. Ali, Alkhorayef Petroleum

Artificial lift equipment quality assurance and the related international standards and recommended practices are key elements to deliver the expected reliability of selected artificial lift equipment for the intended application and to maximize the value creation of the lift method. The aim of this break out session is to have an awareness discussion on available ESP standards and Quality assurance, from manufacturers to the operation. The expectation of this break out session is that the participants will take away the availability of the key Standards & Quality Assurance and their benefits to maximize ESP run life.

 

14:30 - 15:00
15:00 - 16:00
Session 7: Business Models
Session Chairpersons Said Dirawi, Halliburton; Mondher Yassine, PFT Systems & Connectors

Various Business Models are currently developed to provide the most economical approach when compared to different artificial lift methods for multiple applications. This session will discuss both operating company and service companies on various aspects of business models that influence the commercial and operational way of work. The session will look into the selection process of the most applicable method to fit one’s business strategy and highlight the challenges and solutions during project development.

Several technical and operational challenges are encountered during the contract implementation, change in scope, requirements, amongst others, besides other lessons learned during ESP contract execution.  

Commercial modeling of tenders/projects will take into consideration economic value-added analysis, pricing justification and defense, evaluation of alternative business models.

16:00 - 17:00
Session 8: Surveillance and Optimisation
Session Chairpersons Antonio Andrade Marin, Petroleum Development Oman; Aziz Aziz, Schlumberger

Production Surveillance and Optimization aim to ensure the best performance and optimum operating conditions of Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP). Enabling state-of-the art real-time monitoring of well performance, within the dynamic and changing operating environments, requires perfect orchestration between real time surveillance and optimization tools, infrastructure, data management, monitoring factors, real time data requirements and basic & advanced diagnostic features. End-to-end processes need to work seamlessly to ensure the automatic creation and update of the physics based well models, evaluated with real-time to automate the ESP well performance analysis, well test validation and optimization, amongst others. In the last 3½ years, through the steer by focused teams, PDO has successfully embraced state-of-the art real-time monitoring of wells with tangible results.

17:00 - 17:15