After struggling with ESP downtime in unconventional Permian Basin wells, an independent operator used the remote operation capability of Lift IQ™ production life cycle management service to slash deferred production and intervention costs.

The operator's concerns

• Well downtime because of ESP gas lock issues, power shortages, and pumps stuck for hours per incident while waiting for field service technicians to visit a wellsite to reset the pump
• High intervention costs

The operator's goals

• Reduce or eliminate travel and human intervention for ESP restarts.
• Accelerate restarts to cut deferred production.

What SLB recommended

Introduce the Lift IQ service to monitor ESPs and enable remote intervention.

What was achieved

The operator saved nearly USD 700,000 by monitoring four wells from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily and nine wells 24/7.

Over 9 months, the Lift IQ service executed 155 remote startups, 54 remote gas lock interventions, 61 remote speed increases to accommodate production changes in real time, and 113 other remote operations. The 75 critical interventions were performed in 21 minutes each on average, instead of several hours. The service enabled production of 6,474 bbl of oil that would otherwise have been deferred.

More technical details

See SPE-192512.