THE DEFINING SERIES

Electrical Submersible Pumps

Electric drives and

pump-control equipment

Electric
power supply

Rick von Flatern

Senior Editor
More than 90% of all producing oil wells require some form of artificial lift
to increase the flow of fluids from wells when a reservoir no longer has sufficient energy to naturally produce at economic rates or to boost early production to improve financial performance. One of the most versatile and
adaptable artificial lift methods is electric submersible pumping.
Deployed in an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 wells worldwide, electric
submersible pumps (ESPs) consist of multiple centrifugal pump stages
mounted in series within a housing mated to a submersible electric motor.
These pumps are connected to surface controls and electric power by
armor-protected cables. Surface electric drives power and control ESP systems, which are able to lift from 16 to 4,770 m3/d [100 to 30,000 bbl/d], a
pump rate operation range that surpasses the performance of other pumptype artificial lift systems such as rod pumps, progressing cavity pumps and
hydraulic lift.

Oilfield Review 2015.

Copyright 2015 Schlumberger.
For help in preparation of this article, thanks to George Waters, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,
USA, and Diego Narvaez, Houston.

Gas separator
Pump intake

Motor protectors

Motor

Perforations
Produced
fluids

Figure 1. Typical ESP configuration. Downhole ESP components include

motor, protectors, pump sections, pump intakes, power cables, gashandling equipment and downhole sensors (not shown). Surface
components include pump-control equipment such as variable-speed
drives and an electric power supply.

manufactured and quantifies the relationship between pump horsepower,

efficiency, flow rate and head relative to the operating flow rate. The pump
recommended operating range is defined for each pump stage in the catalog
Head

4,800

Operating point

4,200
3,600

60

Pump efficiency

2,400

50

1,800
1,200
600
0

40

Horsepower

30
0

200

400

600

800

1,000 1,200 1,400 1,600 1,800

56

80
70

3,000

64

90

48
40
32
24
16

Pump efficiency, %

5,400

Horsepower

Anatomy of an ESP System

Electric submersible pump systems comprise both downhole and surface
components (Figure 1). The overall length and diameter of ESP downhole
equipment are designed based on the horsepower necessary to deliver the
desired flow rate.
An ESP is a multistage centrifugal pump whose stages are stacked; the
operating requirements of the well and completion design dictate the number of stages. Each stage contains a rotating impeller and stationary diffusers typically cast from high-nickel iron to minimize abrasion or corrosion
damage. As well fluid flows into the first stage of the ESP, it passes through
an impeller, and the fluid is centrifuged radially outward, gaining energy in
the form of velocity. The centrifugal pump is driven by an induction motor
that can attain operating speeds of more than 5,000 rpm when using a variable speed drive.
After it exits the impeller, the fluid is forced to make a sharp turn to
enter the diffuser. As it travels through this section, the fluid is diffused, and
its velocity is converted to pressure. The fluid, which now has a slightly
higher pressure than when it entered the first stage, enters the next impeller and diffuser stage to repeat the process. The fluid passes through all
stages of the pump, incrementally gaining pressure in each stage until it
achieves a total developed head, or designated discharge pressure, and has
sufficient energy to travel to the surface of the well.
A pumps operational performance is illustrated in its pump performance curve (Figure 2). A performance curve is generated for each pump

Separated gas

Head, ft

ESP Origins
In 1911, 18-year-old Russian engineer Armais Arutunoff invented the first
electric motor that operated in water. He added a drill and a centrifugal
pump to the motor, inventing what is now known as the electric submersible
pump. Arutunoff immigrated to the US, where he founded Russian Electrical
Dynamo of Arutunoff, or REDA. Electric submersible pumps are now operating in onshore and offshore fields throughout the world.

Power cable

8
0

Flow rate, bbl/d

Figure 2. Pump performance curve. Such curves are generated to chart a

pumps ability to displace fluids and to determine the number of pump
stages required to achieve a desired production rate. The head capacity
curve (blue) shows the amount of lift at a given flow rate. The horsepower
requirements of the pump (red) across a range of flow capacities are
derived from performance testing. The pump efficiency (green) is calculated
from the head, flow capacity, fluid specific gravity and horsepower. The
purple shaded area indicates the most efficient operating range for this
specific pump. The operating point (red dot) shows that, at 60 Hz, this
185-stage pump is operating within the optimum range.

www.slb.com/defining

performance curve. By tracking these parameters over the course of the

wells life, the operator can determine at what point the ESP falls out of its
recommended range and plan for resizing the ESP or replacing it with a different lift system to accommodate the actual flow rate.
A downhole submersible motor provides power to the pump. The motor
is typically a two-pole, three-phase, squirrel-cage induction electric motor
available in a variety of operating voltages, currents and horsepower ratings
ranging from 7.5 kW to more than 750 kW. Motor size is dictated by the
amount of power required to drive the pump to lift the estimated volume of
produced fluid out of the well. Wellbore fluids passing over the motor housing act as cooling agents.
A seal section between the pump intake and the motor houses the thrust
bearing that carries the axial thrust developed by the pump. The seal also
isolates and protects the motor from well fluids and equalizes the pressure
in the wellbore with the pressure inside the motor.
In wells characterized by relatively high gas-to-oil ratios (GORs) and low
bottomhole pressures, produced fluids may contain quantities of free gas.
Submersible pumps are susceptible to operational problems, including cavitation or gas locking in high-volume free gas environments, which may
shorten pump run life. In these applications, a gas separator is installed at
the intake section of the pump to separate the gas from the well fluid before
it enters the pump. If the amount of free gas exceeds a designated limit, a
gas handling device may also be installed downstream of the separator.
To ensure optimal ESP performance, operators may install downhole
sensors that continuously acquire real-time system measurements such as
pump intake and discharge pressures and temperatures, vibration and current leakage rate. Typically, users monitor pumps through supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, which act as central repositories
of data from all downhole sensors and can initiate actions through linked
controls or alerts. When it detects a pump reading that is outside preset
levels, a sensor alerts the operator in real time and can be enabled to make
settings changes to the pump via remote control.
Power is provided from the surface to the motor via a specially constructed three-phase electric cable designed for downhole environments. To
limit cable movement in the well and to support its weight, the cable is
banded or clamped to the production tubing.
Electric submersible pump surface components include an electric supply system. Onshore, electricity is typically provided by a commercial power
distribution system. A transformer may be required to convert the electricity provided via commercial power lines to match the voltage and amperage
requirements of the ESP motor. Offshore, ESP operations require a portable
power source such as a diesel generator.
Intelligent, remote terminal, unit-programmable controllers and drives
at the surface maintain the proper flow of electricity to the pump motor.
Major controller types include fixed-frequency switchboards, soft-start controllers and variable speed controllers; application, economics and the preferred level of control dictate the choice of controller.
A variable speed drive (VSD) reads the downhole data recorded by the
SCADA system and scales back or ramps up the motor speed to optimize a
balance of pump efficiency and production rate. The drive allows the pump
to be operated continuously or intermittently or be shut off in the event of a
significant operational problem. The direct speed control afforded by the
VSD increases system efficiency and the run life of the ESP system while
reducing the incidence of downtime.

Advantages and Disadvantages

In many field applications, ESP systems provide several operational advantages
over other forms of artificial lift. An ESP is especially appropriate for moderateto-high production rate wells, including highly deviated wells and remote, subsea deepwater wells. The pumps can be manufactured from high-grade,
corrosion-resistant metallurgies for application in well environments with highGOR fluids, high temperatures and fluids containing corrosive acid gases.
Electric submersible pumps provide increased production while handling high water cuts brought on by pressure maintenance and secondary
recovery operations. The systems are quiet and safe and require a smaller
surface footprint than that of some other lift systems, making them a preferred option in offshore and environmentally sensitive areas. ESP systems
can be configured with flexibility to accommodate the dynamic evolution of
fluid properties and flow rates during the life of the well and can operate
with pump intake pressure of less than 1 MPa [100 psi].
However, a number of operational challenges must be considered when
running ESPs. Even though ESP systems can be built with special abrasionresistant metallurgies and upgraded radial bearing materials and configuration, ESP run times can be severely compromised in high sand and solids
content environments. Performance also degrades when pumping viscous
fluids or high gas-to-liquid ratio mixtures. The development of more efficient downhole gas separation and gas handling devices has improved ESP
applications in flow streams containing high volumes of free gas, but those
devices add to completion costs.
Although ESP systems can operate at 0 to 90 inclinations, their application is restricted by the well curvature through which they must pass during deployment and landing. ESP manufacturers must use dogleg severity to
determine the stress and deflection of the ESP components to ensure
proper installation and operation is possible.
Although ESP motors are built on voltages that typically range from
460 to 4,200 V at 60Hz for oilfield applications, most ESPs use higher voltage
motors. As a result, a higher voltage power supply is needed at the surface
to compensate for the voltage drop in the power cable, which can be significant in deep installations requiring long power cables.
Pump efficiency peaks when a pump is operating at the flow rate corresponding to the best efficiency point (BEP) on the pump performance curve;
efficiency decreases at flow rates above or below the BEP. As the production
rate continues to drop, the ESP may need to be pulled and replaced with a
lift system better suited to lower production rates; for onshore applications,
a suitable replacement might be a rod pump or PCP. Below a rate of approximately 25 m3/d [150 bbl/d], ESPs are usually not an economic lift option.
Future Developments
The industry is developing robust pump designs that will extend the applicability of ESP systems in environments with high-solids flow streams.
Other research initiatives are focused on improved reliability designs at the
component level and integrated systems and on advanced operating surveillance and control algorithms to significantly increase ESP system run life.
To improve the economics of ESPs in remote offshore wells, the industry
is investigating more cost-effective means of deploying and pulling equipment. A rigless intervention using low-cost standard slickline, coil tubing or
downhole tractor conveyance would avoid the high expense and long wait
times for a dedicated rig. Using this option, an operator can deploy or
retrieve the ESP assembly in a matter of hours and minimize production
losses. Ultimately, developments such as this will enable a greater number
of operators to maximize well production.
Oilfield Review