Electric Submersible Pump (ESP) System is the main artificial lift technique used in Belayim oil fields. Failures due to sand and solid particles flowing with the production fluid are one of the main causes of interventions in ESP wells and one of the most significant concerns that affect the oil production sustainability and field economics. Therefore, an unconventional solution should be applied and considered to reduce the ESP failures. This paper presents a case study showing how to select and design ESP system associated with sand and solid control system, "Vortex sand shield system", to achieve a significant improvement in the ESP system run life in Belayim oil fields. Vortex sand shield system is an innovative and highly efficient solution to take control of downhole sand problems, which is composed of two parts that act as a double stage system for solids separation. The first stage is solids control with the screens and the second stage is sand filtration with the centrifugal force. The advantage of associated vortex sand shield system is to eliminate and solve the sand problems with two filtration and separation stages. The purpose of combining two filtration and separation stages is to maximize the efficiency of the solid control system and to handle large and fine solids. Another advantage of this system is that it is easy to design and install, less operating time. This paper will present a complete analysis of the case study completion and an associated problem in designing, then it will present a practical solution for difficult well condition and ways of success this challenge, concluding lessons learned and capable of applying this technology for other challenges and chance of this technology to be applied on all problematic sandy wells.
Petrobel has identified ESP down hole failures and classified them into two main types of failures (electrical and mechanical failures) hence it has searched for the proper solutions conventional and unconventional to prevent or mitigate such failures, Odessa company have been providing a very effective solution for highly effected problem (sand production) which is Vortex sand shield system.
