Electric Submersible Pumps - Application Engineering - Practical Training

Introduction / HSE Orientation / Welcome: The class will start with an informal introduction session.  This will include a brief outline of the history of the course and the main areas/topics that will be reviewed.  An overview of the training will be discussed with participants to determine if the agenda meets the needs of those attending the training. The goals and objectives of each client will be recorded to ensure the training meets expectations. If there are some requests not covered in the agenda, where possible, the agenda will be adjusted to accommodate additional requests.

HSE: Safety for the class will be of the upmost importance. Sections of the training that require PPE or special attention will be reviewed.  This will also include who to contact if any concerns arise.

Artificial Lift Review: This section focuses on the fundamentals of Artificial Lift and how fluid moves through a reservoir, how it behaves in a well and what characteristics of the well have the biggest impact on Artificial Lift. This may be a review from some, but ensuring the basics are correct is essential for the understanding of the balance of the training. Each form of Artificial Lift has advantages and disadvantages – it is important that the five main forms of Artificial Lift, including Rod Pump, PCP, Jet Pump, Gas Lift and ESP be reviewed to determine which form of lift is best suited for various reservoir conditions.

Plant Tour 1

ESP Display Room

DHE Machining Center: Head & Base, Housing & Shaft Machining this part of the tour goes through the finishing process where the parts from the foundry are finished into usable impellers and diffusers.  This will also include the machines of heads, bases and motor potheads.

ESP Equipment

1. Pump: There are 8 elements of the pump that need to be designed including Stage Type, Number  of Stages, Stage Material,  Bearing Material,  Bearing Spacing, Shaft Material, Housing Material  and Construction Configuration. Each of these will be reviewed in detail to determine the best design for specific environments.

Plant Tour 2

Stator Winding, Auto-Shaft Straightening

Motor Assembly, Pump & Protector Assembly

2. Motor: How the motor works will be reviewed from the basic principles of electricity. Without this understanding how downhole gauges/sensors operate, which is discussed in the following section will not be possible. Motor insulation, rating and temperature limitations will be reviewed.

Plant Tour 3

Foundry  & Finishing: (PPE Required – Safety Shoes, Safety Glasses, Fume Mask and Headset with Communication). First part of this tour is a review of the foundry area which starts in the Green Sand Lab; where the quality  of the cast parts are controlled including metallurgy, hardness, finish, etc. The foundry area will be toured where raw materials such as iron, zinc, nickel, chromium, etc. are melted and formed into impellers and diffusers.  It will include a review and observation of the casting process from start to finish.

3. Protector/Seal: The 5 main functions of a protector will be reviewed including Pressure Equalization, Barrier Protection, Thrust, Torque and Oil Reservoir for the motor.  The three types of protectors will be reviewed including Positive Seal, Labyrinth and Bellows.

Plant Tour 4

Final Test Well (FAT & VPTS)

Quality Control (QC)

4. Power Cable: Worldwide failure rates indicate that approximately half of all ESP failures occur in the cable string. In this section each of the components of the cable including conductor, insulation, barrier, jacket and armor will be reviewed.Software

Overview: There will be two Design Software packages reviewed.  The first is a basic pump design software package that focuses on quick pump selection. This software can be used to perform basic evaluation on pump performance and comparison between different pump manufactures.

The second software package is Design Pro, one of the most advanced ESP design program available. During this training various ESP Design scenarios will be evaluated, the students will be provided with Laptops to use the software packages. The designs will become increasingly more difficult as familiarity with the software increases.

Plant Tour 5

Gas Lift Manufacturing

Q&T Facility Plant Tour 

5. Intake: The intake portion will include standard intakes, gas separation devices and gas handling devices. This section will also include why gas is such a problem for ESP’s, how gas behaves in the well bore and true efficiency of gas separators.

6. HPS In this section Horizontal Pumping Systems will also be reviewed.

Plant Tour 6

Gauges Manufacturing Plant Tour

VSD/Transformer/Gauge Test 

5. Sensor: 5. Sensor: Downhole sensors are becoming more common as their functionality and reliability improve. This section will include how the gauge operates and what can cause premature failure of a gauge.

ESP Design (Hand Calculations): The fundamentals of design work and a hand design will be conducted using two methods. The first design will use the traditional Bottoms Up Method that focuses on TDH and the second method will use the newer Top Down method that focuses on Pressure. This is important so that output for ESP software packages can be understood and explained.

Oil Well Simulator: The simulator will be used extensively this day to simulate / visualize / replicate a number of operational condition in the well.

Surface Equipment: There are usually only 4 main components to the surface equipment including the Transformer, Switchboard, VSD and Motor Controller. Each of these will be reviewed in detail, but extra time will be spent on the VSD. The issue of Harmonics, both back onto the power system and down to the ESP, is often not well understood – this section of the training will remove any mystery surrounding harmonics. Also, the benefits and drawbacks of different types of VSD’s will be reviewed.

Trouble Shooting: Class room training will include a cause and effect session where students are required to analyze what will happen to the ESP under varying condition so ESP performance can be interpreted.

This will be followed by why trouble shooting is so difficult and some steps that can be taken to help analyze data is such a way as to interpret what is happening downhole.

Following on will be a DIFA (Dismantle Inspection and Failure Analysis) discussion on how to get the most of the dismantle process to ensure that failures do not occur the same way.

Monitoring, Run Life and Questions: there are two critical areas when it comes to determining if monitoring will be successful – the first is the collection of quality data and the second is what is done with the data. The value of various data will be discussed and then a review of the stages available that allow for the highest production increase from that data.

The economics of ESP’s will be discussed focusing on the areas of runlife, incentive contacts, tendering processes and types of contracts that could be implemented.

This will also be a day where problems that attendees of the class can bring forward and an analysis of the data can be done as a group.

Quiz: Almost every day there will be a quiz to ensure that the learnings which occurred during each section have been attentively listened to. This is a learning technique as it has been shown that when testing is expected the retention rate is improved Training will conclude at the end of the second Thursday