American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2016 - 47

FIGURE 1
ESP Run Days Before and After Installing Sand Control Tool
(Mississippian Lime Wells)
600

500

400

300

200

100

0
#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23

Run days with tool installed

Run days prior to installing tool

two devices have been installed in each
well to ensure the ESPs are protected.
With well production rates varying between 400 and 6,200 barrels a day across
the field, two sizes of ESPs are installed:
a 4.0-inch outside diameter system for
wells producing at lower daily rates, and
a 5.38-inch outside diameter pump for
wells with rates greater than 3,500 bbl/d.
ESP run life in the field is on an
upward trend, thanks to high efficiencies,
good operational procedures, and a focus
on ESP reliability solutions. The sand
control tool has performed flawlessly, allowing the pumps to record as many as
477 run days (and counting) after the
tool was installed, representing an average
1,200 percent improvement in ESP run
times.
No pumps have been lost because of

JOHN H. "JAY" THOMPSON is the
artificial lift specialist with SandRidge
Energy in Oklahoma City. He has been
with SandRidge for three years, but
has more than 27 years of experience
in the surface and downhole pumping
industry. Thompson's interests include
the effects of wellbore design and how
that affects ESPs, root cause failure
analyses, and how the longevity of
downhole equipment can be improved.
JEFF DWIGGINS is managing director of Artificial Lift Solutions. He
has more than 25 years of experience
providing support for all types of artificial lift projects in many of the world's
major oil-producing areas, including
Russia, China, the Middle East, Asia,
South America and the United States.

Shutdowns

sand in the field since the tools were installed, and there have been no workover
call-outs to mitigate sand-related well or
pump failures. In an extreme case, as
many as 104 shutdowns were observed
within six months in one of SandRidge's
wells. With the tool in place, the ESP was
protected at every shutdown and production
was able to resume immediately flowing
each time the pump was restarted.
By preventing damaged pumps and
costly well workovers, the tool provides
an affordable safeguard against sand fallback in wells equipped with ESPs. The
net result for SandRidge in the Mississippian Lime is significantly lower lease
operating expenses, extended ESP run
life, increased overall production, and
dramatically reduced downtime and deferred production.
❒

Dwiggins started his own consulting
firm in 2002, opening his international
office in 2005. He holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University
of Oklahoma.
SCOTT MUSTER is managing principal of MCe Performance, and works
as a marketing consultant to Houstonbased Multilift Welltec LLC, which
manufactures the SandGuard™ tool used
to protect the ESPs in SandRidge Energy's Mississippian Lime wells. Muster
is an award-winning branding/marketing executive with more than 25 years
of experience coaching teams of corporate thought leaders and graphic
arts professionals to produce marketing
materials and messaging. He is a graduate of the University of Houston.
FEBRUARY 2016 47
American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2016

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