American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2016 - 74

SpecialReport: Artificial Lift Technology

New Pumps Offer Long Life, Low Cost
By Colter Cookson
An effective artificial lift program can
be key to reducing an operator's cost per
barrel. Fortunately, the industry is benefitting from a host of engineers and entrepreneurs who are finding ways to optimize the reliability and efficiency of
everything from sucker rods to electric
submersible pumps with the goal of reducing production costs while increasing
well productivity.
The latest artificial lift innovations include an ESP the manufacturer says has
an unusually wide operating range, as
well as a remote monitoring platform designed to improve ESP performance. Others tout new techniques that are boosting
the sand tolerance of rod pumps and enabling operators to keep them above the
curve, even in gas slugging-prone horizontals. These techniques are complemented by a user-friendly, long-stroke
pumping unit and a reliable fiberglass
rod, as well as a dependable production
chemical delivery method for rod-pumped
or ESP wells.
Power Quality
Even the best artificial lift equipment
can go down if the electric power that
drives it is inconsistent, observes Doug
Moorehead, president and chief technology
officer at FlexGen®. "Many operators
have significant downtime associated with
power quality issues, particularly on ESPs,
but also on rod pumps," he warns. "Field
data suggest pumps are down 10-15 percent of the time because of power quality
issues. On a well that produces 6001,000 barrels a day, that downtime means
losing thousands of dollars a day."

To help operators understand how
power quality impacts the bottom line,
FlexGen has introduced a cloud-based
data analytics platform. "This platform
constantly records transient power quality
conditions," Moorehead describes. "It
covers the basics of voltage, current,
motor speed and motor temperature, and
reports that data in formats that are appropriate for different audiences-from
field representatives to production managers and executives.
"This level of data analytics can be
extremely powerful," he says. "It gives
operators incredible insight into the uptime
and revenue status of their wells, allowing
them to determine where it would be
beneficial to address power quality issues."
For particularly troublesome wells,
FlexGen can deploy its solid state generator. Developed to provide efficient and
reliable power to U.S. soldiers in the battlefield, Moorehead says it has been
proven in marine, industrial, and oil and
gas applications.
"The generator got its start in the oil
patch in dual-fuel land drilling rigs," he
relates. "It has been extremely successful
helping operators such as Pioneer Natural
Resources, Devon Energy Corp., and
Apache Corp. reduce fuel consumption,
cut emissions, and improve performance
on dual-fuel drilling rigs."
According to Moorehead, the generator
addresses the oil field's three most frequent
power quality issues: voltage sag, frequency deregulation, and harmonics.
"Voltage issues occur because many production pads-and the artificial lift systems
pumping the wells on those pads-get
their power from low-quality fuel or a

The solid state generator
from FlexGen® addresses
power quality issues that
otherwise cause artificial
lift equipment to go down
periodically.

74 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

power line that has been run 10-15 miles
from a local utility or electric cooperative.
By the time the power gets to the field,
the voltage often falls from the expected
480 volts to 420 or 410 volts, causing the
ESP's motor to shut down."
For similar reasons, the power's frequency can drop from the standard 60
hertz to 55 hz, or rise to 65. Like voltage
sag, these irregularities can cause the
pump to go off line, Moorehead warns.
"The fluid column has to be drained
before the ESP can come back on line,
so each event takes it down for an average
of two hours," he reports.
Downtime is not the only issue. "Voltage sag, frequency variations, and harmonic distortion all reduce the pump's
life," Moorehead says. "In fact, we anticipate that solving these power quality
issues will extend a typical ESP's life at
least six months and may double it to 18
or 24 months."
Because it can store power, the solid
state generator also prevents rod pumps
from sending low-quality power into the
electric grid as they fall, which Moorehead
says can reduce utility fees. He adds that
it may allow operators to connect to utilities that otherwise would refuse to provide
service.
The generator also may help operators
use smaller, less-expensive equipment.
"When operators have power quality issues, in many cases the traditional solution
is to bring out a bigger generator. For example, they may deploy a 300-kilowatt
generator when they only need 150 kw,"
Moorehead observes. "By solving power
quality issues, we help operators rightsize their generators, reducing fuel consumption and the environmental footprint.
"When uptime, longer run life, and
reduced fuel consumption are taken into
account, getting high-quality power can
reduce overall artificial lift electricity
costs 40-60 percent," he concludes.
Efficient Motor
To reduce operators' power consumption, Borets International is expanding
the number of products that use its permanent magnet motor (PMM). "The motor
is more efficient than the induction motor
traditionally used to power ESPs," says
Keith Russell, the company's vice president of marketing. "The PMM consumes

American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2016