Challenge: Reduce time needed to restart wells and avoid deferred production after unexpected power supply interruptions
Solution: Use Lift IQ™ production life cycle management service and support from Artificial Lift Surveillance Center (ALSC) to monitor operations prior to the interruption, remotely restart the wells, and confirm the wells had successfully restarted after the interruption
Results:
A power supply interruption for a customer in Ecuador represents a major issue for production and logistics. Although these interruptions are not frequent, they severely affect operations, considering the remote well locations, mobilization and security coordination, and HSE exposure. To overcome these constraints, a solution was required that would enable remote well startups, reducing the time to reestablish the field and avoiding deferred production.
SLB recommended using the Lift IQ service to monitor operations and quickly take action in the event of a power supply interruption. After one such interruption, the ALSC received confirmation from the local engineering team to proceed with the remote well startups. The team used the Lift IQ service to confirm remote access to each well and identify when each well had started up. After restarting all the wells, the Lift IQ service was used to monitor performance during the stabilization period.
As a result, the 42 wells were started up in a record timing of 2.8 hours, instead of the estimated 16.8 hours if they were started up without the remote intervention of the ALSC team. Thanks to the collaboration between the remote and onsite operations teams, deferred production was reduced by an estimated 72%, representing savings of USD 190,000.
