Perpustakaan Digital ITB

The increasing sand production in oil and gas wells poses a significant challenge to the run life and productivity of Electric Submersible Pump (ESP) systems. This paper focuses on the re-design of ESP systems by incorporating a bigger pump and reducing the number of stages to enhance the operational longevity of wells which encounter the sand problem. A case study was conducted in the "X" Block that located in Sumatera, Indonesia. The study involved analyzing the sand problem in the "TM-01" well and assessing the suitability of a re-designed ESP solution based on reservoir and well conditions. Sand problems in “X-Block” were prevalent in wells equipped with smaller pumps due to the ease of impeller clogging. It was discovered that 125 wells with sand issues had an average operating life of 1313 days. The study showed that showed that clogging issues inside the impeller due to the sand problems might be successfully handled by a larger pump with fewer stages. The re-design of ESP systems with a bigger pump offers several advantages, including a thicker impeller, increased surface area, and a wider operating rate range. Meanwhile, the advantages for using bigger pump size with less pump stages ESP are divided into theoretical and empirical approaches. The theoretical approach leads to a larger open cavity inside the pump, making it more difficult and will need longer time for sand can plug inside the impeller, while the empirical approach lowers the head, allowing the value of head/stage to be adjusted. On "TM-01" well, the original IND440 pump with 203 stages was changed out for a IND750 pump with 169 stages due to the sand problems occurred which characterized by alarms showing high ampere warning on the motor and ‘pump shaft rotation stucked’ on the pump, then validated by the results of the DIFA report showing the production of sand inside the impeller. After replacing the pump, the well's run time significantly extended from 63 to 288 days. Data processing was then carried out in PROSPER 11.5 software by selecting the pump that has the most similar operating rate to the pump in the field, namely pump DN440 - 203 stages which was then replaced with DN675 - 172 stages. The result shows increasing in the operating rate from 208.7 to 490 STBD and decreasing in the required head from 5424.65 to 4590.35 ft. Overall, this research highlights the importance of re-designing ESP with bigger pump and less stages method to improve the performance and longevity of oil wells which encounter the sand problem.