Digitalizing the Management of Electric Submersible Pump Failures Through Failure Prevention and Post-Mortem Analysis Tools

Abstract

The replacement and maintenance of Electric Submersible Pumps (ESP) represents a significant operating expense for any in-situ Oil Sands operation. The goal at Suncor's in-situ operations is to effectively and efficiently manage ESP failures to lower costs, maintain production, reduce carbon emissions, and contribute to safe operations. This goal is in part, accomplished through a collection of software tools that automate and enhance Production Engineering workflows related to the management of over 300 ESPs. An overview of the overall digitalization effort, including information about the development and rationale behind the centralized ESP information and analytics database, various failure prediction tools and anomaly detection methodologies, and the application that delivers these solutions is discussed. The estimated impact of this effort is measured through accuracy. The ideas behind the effort have, both directly and indirectly, contributed to the increase in ESP run life, the decrease in ESP replacement time, the decrease in person-hours per ESP required for management, the increase in safe operations, and the increase to general well availability.