More Oil – Colombia

Failure analysis, new equipment specification and diagnosis techniques deliver ability to identify and prevent a production loss of 3,400 barrels a day.

Problem

Canacol Energy’s Rancho Hermosa field, had been slowly losing production on their existing wells, then two ESPs failed resulting in a significant production drop – a big problem for a small company that had recently invested in the field and had ambitions for major growth. They asked us to do a failure analysis on the two failed ESPs wells, to find out what was going wrong.

What we did

A lot more than a simple teardown. We performed a review of the production history and ESP operating data of their wells and using advanced diagnosis techniques, quickly identified that Canacol were taking big hits on their production, because the ESP pumps were wearing out due to solids. We identified when the production losses started, quantified the value of the lost production and demonstrated the value of proactive workovers. One well alone had lost an estimated 63,985 barrels of oil over the ‘wear’ period until the ESP failed. The teardowns of the failed equipment sets substantiated the pump wear conclusion.

Comparison of worn out pump impeller vs. new pump impeller.

A specification for Canacol’s ESP equipment was provided, so that the equipment could withstand the production of fine solids and mitigate wear.