American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc.

This paper was prepared for the Improved Oil Recovery Symposium of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, to be held in Tulsa, Okla., March 22–24, 1976. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal provided agreement to give proper credit is made.

Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.

Introduction

This paper reviews the application of electric submergible pumping systems to oil field pumping requirements. Also presented is a typical pump and motor design procedure and a review of operating parameters that can affect pump performance.

DESCRIPTION OF EQUIPMENT

The submergible pumping system's major components are motor, protector, pump and cable which are run into the well on tubing. Surface components are the cable junction box, switchboard and transformers. Figure 1 shows the downhole equipment.

Motor

The submergible electric motor is a 3-phase, induction type, that is oil-filled for cooling and lubrication. A high starting torque enables it to reach full load operating speed of approximately 3500 RPM in less than fifteen cycles, thus reducing drag on the power supply. Cooling is achieved by heat transfer to the well fluid moving by the motor. For this reason, the unit is set above the producing zone. Submergible motors have been successfully operated in ambient temperatures in excess of 300 deg.. These motors are available in a range of diameters, horsepowers and voltages to accommodate a wide variety of applications.

Keywords:
production monitoring, Upstream Oil & Gas, selection, production control, Drillstem Testing, calculation, well performance, drillstem/well testing, sand face pressure, diameter
Subjects:
Well & Reservoir Surveillance and Monitoring, Formation Evaluation & Management, Drillstem/well testing, Well performance, inflow performance
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1976. Society of Petroleum Engineers
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