Shale Spotlight: Staying Ahead of the Curve

Unstable levels of inflow to the wellbore and unusual multiphase flow behavior pose critical challenges when planning an artificial solution for shale plays because they often lead to gas locking and shorten run life of the rod pumps and electric submersible pumps (ESPs) commonly used in unconventional plays. Steep production declines and fluctuating fluid characteristics were the key challenges when working in the Eagle Ford shale for Magnum Hunter Resources. In conventional environments, ESPs typically are placed downhole and expected to run continuously for a few years without stopping until the unit fails or needs to be pulled for resizing. However, in the prevailing Eagle Ford conditions, traditional artificial lifting solutions would not work for long without burning out the ESPs.