SPE 137232

First Surface Driven PCP Application on Alaska's North Slope

James P. Young and William L. Mathews, SPE, BP Alaska

Copyright 2010, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Progressing Cavity Pumps Conference held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 1214 September 2010.
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been
reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its
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Abstract
Alaskas North Slope (ANS) contains a large resource of heavy oil above two of the largest producing fields in
North America, but due to the complexity of producing heavy oil in an arctic environment, remains untapped.
Development of heavy oil in the Arctic represents a significant departure from conventional oil developments on
the North Slope as well as established heavy oil developments elsewhere in the world. This paper describes a
cold heavy oil production with sand (CHOPS) test using a surface driven progressive cavity pump (PCP) to
evaluate the resource for commercialization. Despite success using this technique in other heavy oil applications,
significant design challenges remain. The test recovered significant quantities of oil and sand at minimal
drawdown; however, the capacity of the well was limited by surface torque values that were significantly higher
then anticipated and ultimately resulted in a rod failure after 3-weeks of production. Further analysis indicated that
torque was dominated by drag forces between the continouous rod string and the oil. Followup testing using oil
produced from the well was completed with specially designed test equipment to identify the source of the
unexpectedly high torque and provided data to improve rod torque prediction. As a result of the work performed,
the remaining three wells in the initial pilot were designed with significant upside in capacity.
Due to restrictive surface locations and permafrost, effective solids transport in deviated wellbores and its effect
on equipment wear are key considerations that need to be better understood.

Resource Description
The total ANS heavy oil resource is defined by approximately 1,500 wells that penetrate the Ugnu sands for
deeper targets and multiple high quality 3D seismic surveys. The resource is estimated to range from 18 to 27
Bbbls OIP, and is found in multiple reservoir zones extending across the basin (Figure 1 Alaska North Slope
heavy oil resource). Initial appraisal is focused on the 12 18 Bbbls within the Lower Ugnu (M-sand) reservoirs.
The Ugnu structure is characterized by a normal faulted monoclinal dip toward the northeast. The depth of the
Ugnu Pool varies from 4,500 in the east to 3,000 in the west. Multiple fault families are present as indicated by
3D seismic data with north-south and northwest-southeast being the dominant trends. The faults tend to
compartmentalize the Ugnu reservior by providing effective updip and lateral seals.
Lower Ugnu oil quality improves to the east corresponding to increased burial depth from west to east. The
deeper, less viscous oil in the east (operated by BP) is believed to be suited to simple cold production
techniques that exploit solution gas drive. The shallower, heavier oil in the west is believed to be suited to
energy intensive thermal techniques that heat the oil in-situ.

Well Design and Artificial Lift

Prior attempts to test the resource under cold production had been unsuccessful in achieving quality oil to surface
in sufficient quantities. Significant challenges exist around well construction and artificial lift design. Due to the
surface environment and unconsolidated nature of the reservoir, access, balanced with effective solids transport
along the wellbore are key considerations in developing an optimal well design for future CHOPS or horizontal
well development.

SPE 137232

Directional drilling from central pads to minimize surface footprint and anti-collision efforts associated with
previously drilled & future planned wells will create increasingly complex well bore trajectories. Solids transport is
expected to be the most difficult where wellbore angle is within the range of 40-60 from vertical. This typically
occurs in the lower portion of the wellbore where higher temperatures & solution gas cause fluid viscosity to be
lower and less effective at suspending solids.
Inclination and directional changes can also impact the operability of the artificial lift system. Progressing cavity
pump (PCP) systems which rely on a solid rod rotated from surface to drive the PCP are the most common
artificial lift method employed in cold heavy oil operations around the worldi. Although dominant in Canadian
vertical CHOPS wells & Venezuelan horizontal wells (with sand exclusion), such systems have issues in the
presense of both high wellbore deviations and high sand concentrations. Moreover, on the North Slope, the
permafrost zone, in which formation temperatures are below 32 degrees Fahrenheit can be 1800 thick, can
dramatically cool produced fluids at low flow rates (Figure 2 Predicted wellbore hydraulics at 120bpd without heat
trace or solids).
CHOPS flowback test
In August 2008, an extended well test was undertaken to gather additional reservoir & fluid property data as well
as evaluate the viability of CHOPS as a primary recovery technique. Following a foam lift to surge the perforations
clean & establish communication with the lower M80 reservoir, the well was put on production using a surface
driven PCP with a downhole pressure gauge to monitor bottomhole pressure (BHP) and pump discharge pressure
(Figure 3 Wellbore sketch). Upon startup, the well produced 11-12 API oil with more than 20-30% (by volume)
sand concentrations at minimal drawdown and continued to produce at 5-15% sand over a 3-week period. To
maintain adequate wellbore temperatures in this environment, electrical heat traceii was strapped to the tubing to
a depth of 3500 and supplied with up to 30kW of power. Even with significant electrical heat tracing on the
downhole tubulars, oil viscosity increased significantly due solution gas evolution & moderate temperature losses
up the wellbore. Oil viscosity was more than double what was measured from prior fluid samples in nearby wells
and was highly dependant on temperature. Near wellbore plugging was indicated by dramatic losses in BHP that
tended to coincide with formation gas breakout. Although loading the annulus and surging the well was successful
in restoring productivity, it also caused formation of a sand-plug in the tubing when a large volume of water was
inadvertently displaced into the wellbore. The high torque encountered while attempting to remove the plug
ultimately led to a rod failure and subsequent shut-down of the flowback for the winter due to inadequate surface
processing facilities. Overall, productivity of the reservoir was encouraging and because the artificial lift
equipment was the limiting factor to production rate, detailed analysis of the data was conducted to determine
options for upgrading production capacity.
Followup learnings
In addition to improved reservoir characterization and understanding of the viability of cold production, issues
regarding the performance of the surface driven PCP were realized. The lift capacity was strongly limited by
polished rod torque and having the downhole pressure gauge was crucial to understanding what was driving the
excess torque. Further analysis indicated that torque was dominated by drag forces between the continouous rod
string and the oil. Oil viscosity was more than double what was measured from prior fluid samples in nearby wells
and was highly dependant on temperature. Followup testing using oil produced from the well was completed with
specially designed test equipment to identify the source of the unexpectedly high torque and provided data to
improve rod torque prediction (Figure 4 Example of viscous rod torque testing with Ugnu oil). As a result of the work
performed, the remaining three wells in the initial pilot were designed with significant upside in capacity.
Conclusions
Crucial information has been and is continuing to be gathered to help guide decisions for pursuing development of
this resource using surface drive PCPs as the primary artificial lift. Based on the learnings from the flow-back
test, the following improvements were made to increase lift capacity for the first four wells of the pilot program:
1. Additional power supply to down-hole heat-trace in order to manage fluid viscosity and viscous rod torque.
2. Larger tubing and continous rods for high torque capacity while reducing flow-losses in the tubing.
3. Capillary tubing tied into an injection mandrel above the pump discharge to allow for further viscous rod
torque reduction with down-hole diluent injection.
Acquisition of quality data, detailed analysis and followup testing has resulted in significant improvements in the
understanding and predictability of several PCP design factors that are critical in deep heavy oil wells.

SPE 137232

Heavy Oil
Resource

Figure 1 Alaska North Slope heavy oil resource

Figure 2 Predicted wellbore hydraulics at 120bpd without heat trace or solids

SPE 137232

Electric rotating drivehead

Polished rod rams

Continuous rod

Heat trace cable

strapped to tubing
To below
permafrost to
~3500 MD)

Emergency Tubing drain

Rod shear tool

Perforations
15@21 SPF

1 EHD

intake & disharge P/T gauge

PCP intake below perfs

Figure 3 Wellbore sketch

Figure 4 Example of viscous rod torque testing with Ugnu oil

SPE 137232

DUNN, L.J., MATTHEWS, C.M., ZAHACY, T.A.:Progressing Cavity Pumping System Applications in Heavy
Oil Production. SPE International Heavy Oil Symposium, Calgary, Canada, 1995.
ii
Fox, J.B., Earsley, J.D.: Application of Downhole Electric Heat Trace system in Arctic completion. SPE ATCE, New
Orleans, LA, 1998.