Impact of Transient-Flow Conditions on Electric Submersible Pumps in Sinusoidal-Well Profiles: A Case Study

摘要

Chevron Corp. has 13 wells producing offshore Africa with electric submersible pumps (ESPs) that experienced problems primarily caused by the transient nature of the multiphase inflow through the sinusoidal-well profiles. A study completed in 2002 used a transient multiphase simulator to model the sinusoidal sections of each producer and to calculate the conditions that the ESPs could see over the life of the well for various drawdown conditions and speeds. This paper focuses on how the results from the simulator were validated and used to reduce operational downtime and improve future ESP completion designs. This paper also will demonstrate how severe sinusoidal-well profiles impact production operations.