Abstract
ARCO’s Kuparuk River Field on Alaska’s North Slope is a high cost operating environment. In the face of declining reservoir pressures, ARCO began using electric submersible pumps to augment production. Installing and pulling these units carries a very high cost due to the need to use large, arctic workover rigs designed for major well completion operations. Confronted by the need to lower intervention costs, ARCO began investigating alternate deployment methods for submersible pumps. Coiled tubing rigs were available and less costly, so the idea of installing a pump using only a CT rig was developed. Working with Centrilift’s cable and pump groups, a method of suspending power cable inside coiled tubing was developed1 . This ElectroCoil™ would allow installation or pulling of a pump using only a CT rig and crane. With the cable inside the coiled tubing, no banding is required. The concept was further developed to include a Baker packer and dual flapper assembly downhole to assist in shutting off reservoir pressure mechanically instead of using formation damaging and expensive kill fluid. Note – the packer is required to segregate pump suction and discharge. The dual flappers allow the well to be pulled without continuously adding kill weight fluid. With dual flappers, we would kill to unsting and run under-balanced to pull and run. This paper details the procedures used to install this system and discusses additional issues that must be addressed to help ARCO continue to lower intervention costs.
