AccessESP, a leading provider of rigless electric submersible pump (ESP) conveyance solutions for the worldwide oil industry, has showcased its rigless ESP conveyance system in the industry’s first pump swap for an operator on the North Slope of Alaska.

In two days, through a live well intervention, the AccessESP system enabled retrieval of the existing ESP pump and the install of a newly optimized ESP pump using only a slickline unit, lubricator and a crane, marking the industry’s first ESP pump swap on a commercial well. Surface diagnostics determined that the Access375 permanent magnet motor was fully functional, therefore replacement was not required, thus reducing operational time and costs.

In this case, the ESP pump had not failed but was proactively replaced with an optimized pump. This would be cost prohibitive using a workover rig, requiring the replacement of the entire conventional ESP system. To resize a conventional ESP pump, the operator would mobilize a workover rig, kill the well, pull the tubing and ESP and then replace the ESP and rerun the tubing. The costs associated with the intervention and downtime inherent in this approach can be substantial. However, by utilizing a standard slickline unit, lubricator and crane, the AccessESP rigless conveyance system reduces the cost, time and risk associated with ESP resizing.

Greg Nutter, vice president operations, AccessESP, said, "In this project, the operator saved approximately $2 million in workover costs by using our slickline deployed system. Our system allows the operator to replace only the ESP pump, leaving the permanent magnet motor in the well. This pump replacement demonstrates our system is a flexible and reliable choice for operators looking to optimize production and reduce downtime and associated costs."

Electrical submersible pumps (ESPs) are frequently the optimal artificial lift option to cost-effectively maximise reservoir recovery and production. However, the full potential of ESPs in offshore and remote locations has historically been limited by two key challenges: rig deployment, with its associated high intervention costs, loss of producing time and production; and the inability to access the reservoir without pulling the production tubing.

In order to reduce the burden operators face when utilising ESPs, the company has developed a system that makes installation and retrieval of an ESP as simple as running a production logging tool; radically reducing the cost and downtime associated with ESP workovers by utilising a lightweight slickline unit instead of a rig or workover unit to replace the ESP.