Objective
XL Technology has implemented, tested and demonstrated a laboratory proven technique that will improve hydrocarbon recovery in artificial lift completions located throughout Europe, by utilising coiled tubing in a production system incorporating an ESP.
The system provides less impact on the environment as drilling rigs would no longer be required to install the system, and the system would have a longer endurance requiring less workover.
The primary objectives are to demonstrate that this technology is more efficient and cheaper to implement than existing systems; to disseminate the results to other oil producers, service organisations and equipment manufacturers to the nature of the technique, its equipment and execution; to develop innovative links with industry partners.
The project aims to provide a low cost, compact yet efficient procedure that will appeal specifically to operators of fields under artificial lift production such as France, Italy and Holland.
Project has been completed successfully, installations and retrievals were performed successfully, all new technology items performed very well. The installation was commissioned on the 5th of April and has been working up to date. Continuous monitoring has been carried out and further information will be presented to technical forums.
ESP are used in the oil industry as a method for increasing the reservoir production, applicable in wells having high production and productivity together with low producing bottom hole pressure and low solution gas oil ratios. The ESP comprises, a downhole electric motor to drive a multi stage centrifugal pump, situated on the end of a length of jointed tubing. The electric cable supplying energy to the submersible motor is manufactured in various sizes, to suit the power requirements of the selected pump.
Conventional methods convey the ESP on a standard tubing string, with the power cable clamped at twenty foot intervals to the outside of the tubing.
The conventional method described has several inherent weaknesses;
1) A rig has to be mobilised to run the tubing string and associated hardware.
2) The cable clamped to the outside of the tubing is subject to mechanical damage while being conveyed into the well, and reliant on the consistency of the rig crew.
3) The cable system is subject to high degree of mechanical and chemical damage while in situ, resulting in more frequent workover being required.
Significant advantages are achieved when a suitably modified assembly is conveyed into a well on coiled tubing; a) It is possible to make optimum utilisation of production fluids, by reinjecting separated gases back down the reeled tubing to increase production, or reduce the load on the ESP assembly.
b) It is possible to reverse circulate the pump prior to starting the electric motor, ensuring it is free from debris, etc. This can also be performed to flush the pump with chemical mixtures for in situ servicing.
c) Better protection is provided for the power cable; both from mechanical damage while being run into the well, and from excessive bending during conventional installation and surface handling.
d) This system provides automatically a means to access the well to perform remedial workover services. Several aspects of this innovative project overcomethese drawbacks :
a) Ensuring that more sufficient ESP cable is placed inside the reeled tubing. This is achieved by the controlled injection of the ESP cable inside the reel that allows for sufficient cable stack-off to be added to the system. b) Ensuring there is no ESP cable movement inside the coiled tubing, by mechanically anchoring the cable to the inside wall of the coiled tubing.
c) Use a lighter ESP cable without a conventional steel armour, thereby increasing the effective flow area in the annular gap.
d) Finally the system has been designed so that it is possible to deactivate the anchors, by this way, the cable can be removed for repair, or transferred to a new coiled tubing string and reused. This provides greater flexibility and considerable reduces the maintenance costs.
Use of Anchors as Specified in b) above has the benefit that the conductors in the ESP cable can be smaller, of a less expensive construction, as the cable no longer has to support its entire hanging weight.
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DEM - Demonstration contractsCoordinator
NW10 7XR London
United Kingdom