Abstract
Handling high-flow production rates with conventional downhole artificial lift systems equipment has always been a challenge in mature oil fields. In the Northern Llanos field, Colombia, more than 31% wells have, in their current reservoir, high water cuts and reserves with an economic limit of 5 years. It was necessary to accelerate the acquisition of these reserves in less time than the economic limit and extract higher volumes of fluids (over 20,000 B/D).
At the first stage of this campaign, 20 high-flow-rate wells were selected as candidates for installation of a high-efficiency hybrid ESP technology. Since February 2022, the technology has been installed successfully in nine wells, thereby achieving the upsized production targets, increasing fluid production on 30% above the previous intervention, reducing energy consumption by approximately 25%, and reaching pumps efficiencies around 75%.
The hybrid high-efficiency ESP solution was developed through a detailed engineering process that included conceptualization and creation of specific add-on tools to enable high-flow ESP pumps from one manufacturer to be installed along with a high-power permanent magnet motor from another manufacturer.
The evaluation of well production behavior showed a field oil production increase of 1,200 B/D, lower water cuts, and reservoir tops drained with a new drawdown generated and double the volume of reserves (additional 800 million barrels of oil) were proved. In addition, the heavy drop in the well reserve's declination was lower than expected, which means a higher recovery factor.
Integrating technological advantages of each manufacturer along with the development of technological solutions for this integration proved successful. In this case, the complete ESP architecture composed of different technologies was not available before this current project, and it shows great potential to be implemented in additional wells in the field, in Colombia, and other countries around the world.
