Summer blockbuster season has passed, but it’s always nice to grab a bucket of popcorn and escape reality with a movie. Some movies even teach lessons—as in, sometimes it takes hard work and incremental improvements to advance. Chugging raw eggs, sprinting steps, and boxing meat slabs in epic training montages can be effective (Rocky), but so can optimization with computational flow dynamics. Paper IPTC 24243 shows that redesign of a jet pump sliding-sleeve coupling can considerably reduce pressure losses and increase throughput.
The scientific method can even be exciting. Who doesn’t enjoy hypothesizing, experimenting, measuring, cleaning records, analyzing, and scaling up—especially if it pays off with a huge computer-generated explosion in the desert (Oppenheimer)? Paper SPE 218124 demonstrates the benefits of digitizing and analyzing operational data from electrical submersible pumps (ESPs) to improve run life and profitability. Paper OTC 34898 describes a comprehensive testing program to qualify load-bearing ESP deployment cable for corrosive conditions.
Sometimes an overly precise plan draws us to the edge of our seats. The protagonist has recruited a crew of experts, rehearsed obsessively, ensured that every loose end has been tied, and yet some unknown still (temporarily) derails the vault raid (Ocean’s Eleven). Paper SPE 218028 attempts to bypass chance and minimize production interference by orchestrating a network of intermittently gas lifted wells.
Is physics limiting what you can do? Then change the rules. You could move existence into a computer simulation (The Matrix) or perhaps start over with a novel material. Paper IPTC 23949 introduces fiber-reinforced thermoplastic sucker rods to accomplish more with less.
Who doesn’t enjoy a quality sequel? There must be an infinite number of things that can be jumped with a car (The Fast and the Furious). Paper SPE 215010 analyzes failures of gas lift valves retrieved from subsea wells and could be considered a follow-up to paper OTC 30943, an artificial lift paper featured in 2021.
Closure also can satisfy, even if it’s just the final act for a high school chemistry teacher with a side gig (Breaking Bad). With that in mind, it’s been an honor and a pleasure to pen the Artificial Lift Technology Focus page these past few years. I look forward to seeing who the directors cast next for this character.
This Month’s Technical Papers
Analysis Clarifies Failures of Gas Lift Valves in Subsea Wells
Study Evaluates Long-Term Corrosion Risk of Load-Bearing, High‑Power ESP Cable
Fiber-Reinforced Thermoplastic Sucker Rods Provide Artificial Lift Efficiencies
Recommended Additional Reading
SPE 218124 Digitalizing the Management of Electric Submersible Pump Failures Through Failure Prevention and Post-Mortem Analysis Tools by Michael Ellsworth, Suncor Energy, et al.
SPE 218028 Optimization of Gas-Injection Network Using Genetic Algorithm: A Solution for Intermittent Gas Lift Wells by Ankit Garg, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, et al.
IPTC 24243 Increasing Oil Production With Jet Pumps by Reducing Pressure Losses in the Jet Pump/Sliding Sleeve Coupling by J. Soria, Sertecpet, et al.
Michael Romer, SPE, is principal artificial lift engineer at ExxonMobil and is currently a member of the Completions and Well Management Team in the ExxonMobil Upstream Integrated Solutions Company in Houston. He has been with ExxonMobil for more than 18 years, learning, deploying, developing, and teaching artificial lift solutions in US production, global production operations, and upstream research. Romer’s current research and technology interests include artificial lift, production surveillance and optimization, and inflow/outflow modeling. He holds BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee and the University of Illinois, respectively. Romer is secretary of the Artificial Lift Research and Development Council Board of Directors and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Oceanic Engineering Society Subcommittee chair for the Offshore Technology Conference. He is active in various SPE artificial lift events and is a member of the JPT Editorial Review Board.
