Performance Analysis of the Artificial Lift Systems for Heavy Oil Wells in the Egyptian Eastern Desert

Abstract

This paper describes the implementation of a performance analysis (PA) review and a comprehensive root cause failure analysis (RCFA) for the artificial lift system (ALS) failures in heavy oil wells. The subject wells, located in Egyptian Eastern Desert (EED), have been operated by Canadian-Egyptian joint venture. Progressive cavity pump (PCP) and beam pump (BP) have been selected as the preferred ALS methods. With the objective of improving ALS performance, RCFA identifies the main causes of ALS failures and proposes guidelines and recommendations with a new open source service for the current and future development for EED Oil companies. PA has been applied using some Key Performance Indicators (KPI), such as: failure index, recurrence index, and average run life in order to track all failed and crucial issues. RCFA has been applied to different ALS, such as: BP and PCP. Therefore, the definition or limitation of the boundaries of each system and the classification of failures were performed. RCFA covered failures between 2012 and 2018 for average 150 active wells and 622 failures. Finally, the new open source service applied as a trial to evolve the failure tracking and decision making methodology. PA review showed a high failure and recurrence index that reached 3.0 and 3.7, respectively, in 2014 then declined to 1.0 and 1.7, respectively, in 2017 as a result of comprehensive corrective actions implemented. RCFA showed that rod string failure in BP was and still is a dominant failure with 200 failures over the last six years. Moreover, Down-hole pump failure in PCP was the major PCP failure system although its failures declined from 80 failures in 2014 to 14 failures in 2018. Several field cases were presented to cover the dominant cause of failures for both BP and PCP wells. Most wells had a significant improvement in their mean time to failure (MTTF) after reviewing design, installation and operation procedures. The procedure for carrying out this methodology and implementing lessons learned has been presented in this paper. In addition, the new open source integration service provides an increased visibility about individual well performance issues and more broadly, about field performance and ALS failures.