More oil

If you use artificial lift, as long as you’re getting oil, you’re happy – right? Perhaps not.

You’re probably not getting anywhere near as much oil as you should because you’re losing production. The biggest causes are:

1. Downtime caused by failed pumps
2. Losses caused by undiagnosed pump problems
3. Or, if you use gaslift, injecting at an unloading valve

Most people can spot a failed pump – but how many barrels of oil are lost?

Apache’s former CTO, Mike Bahorich, once stated, “Apache lose 10,000 barrels a day from ESP failures. At $100/barrel, that’s $1million a day but, scarily, it’s the other undiagnosed pump problems and non-injection at the orifice that creates the real opportunity for more oil!

As an example, if you are using pumps it’s highly possible that you have:

• Pump wear
• Deposition in the pump
• Wrong rotation
• Tubing leak/Recirculation
• Broken shaft
• Spinning diffusers

If you could identify such problems, quantify the lost oil and then make an economic decision around whether or not you want to change the equipment, then you’d be in a position to make value based decisions around getting more oil.

The old adage, “You’ve got to know you’ve got a problem before you can fix it”, embraces our approach to the more oil issue by first answering the question ‘How much oil is being lost?’

Using our independent ESP analysis software, Pump Checker, you can answer that question, or ask us to do it for you.

Once you’ve got the answer, you can make an economic decision on what to do next. We’re here to help advise you on an equipment specification to prevent recurrence of the problem that is causing you lost production and move you firmly into the realm of more oil.

The question now is, do you really want to know what’s happening with your wells and recognize the opportunities to get more oil?