Electric submersible pumps (ESP) are a mainstay of the oil and gas industry, helping get the most out of a well’s life by lifting oil and gas out from below the surface.
“ESPs are really special because of all the lift types, they can handle the highest volumes at the highest level of efficiency,” says Chris Elliott, who leads global strategy and enablement for oil field services and equipment digital at Baker Hughes. “ESP is one of the most important lift methodologies for these wells.”
Still, there is always room for improvement. Baker Hughes’ Leucipa ESP Optimizer, a module of the company’s Leucipa automated field production solution, does just what the name says.
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Leucipa analyzes the ESPs as they work, then uses artificial intelligence and physics-based modeling to build a history and a forecast for pumps, identifying low performers and suggesting adjustments.
The Optimizer was one of the winners at the 2025 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston—recognized with the Spotlight on New Technology award. In a pilot program using the Optimizer last year in the Permian Basin, Exxon Mobilreported achieving 10 times return on investment and extended run life for its ESPs.
Elliott said the system helps simplify well management.
"We come in here and we look at a series of wells that have a little ESP down in them,” Elliott said. “We analyze the data and we make observations and recommendations about what's happening and what it means."
That enables operators to monitor more wells per person, which has become more important as the industry has shifted its emphasis from producing more barrels to increasing efficiency. Elliott said that shift was obvious at this year’s OTC.
“Seven or eight years ago, the whole conference was around new tech. It was deeper, hotter, faster equipment,” he said. Now they’re saying they need maximum production out of existing assets.
A graphic illustration of an ESP in action. (Source: Baker Hughes)
The system estimates the remaining run life of a pump, which is useful information for an operator in the same way that knowing the remaining life of a car is useful for an owner. The continuously updated estimates let operators know which ESPs need immediate attention and which ones can wait.
“If you have one that's coming down really quick, do you want to act or do you want to wait until it's almost going to die to go take action?” Elliott said. “Because every time I go take action, I'm going to cut off production, I'm going to potentially spend money on a workover.”
The system then uses data from Baker Hughes’ global installation base to make a recommendation for pumps in steeper decline.
“We say, we think you should make this very specific setting change to your controller and it will get rid of this problem,” Elliott said. An example might be changing the torque limits on the pump.
The Optimizer offers a double play of benefits — improving run life of ESPs and reducing downtime by helping prevent breakdowns.
"We can see that that was the problem, give a recommendation, they accept it, and then we track the effectiveness of that action that they took,” he said. “So we have this really nice database of all the things you could have done, what you chose and how effective it was. And then that helps us create better recommendations moving forward.”
The Optimizer collects data from the pump to show how it's operating and how much life it has left. (Source: Baker Hughes)
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