Electrifying Artificial Lift in a Remote West African Brownfield: Pilot Design, Power Scenarios, and Quantified Emissions Impact

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🔬研究者:成熟油田の運用改善による排出削減ポテンシャルを標準準拠で定量化する手法の実例として有用。

🏢実務担当者:既存設備の電化・リフト方式変更がScope1/2削減と増産を両立しうることを示す実務的ケース。

🏛政策担当者:既存油田の延命が新規開発より低排出であることを示し、上流部門の移行政策議論に材料を提供。

This study reassesses artificial lift strategy for a remote onshore brownfield in West Africa historically dominated by gas lift (GL). The question addressed is whether moving away from GL can materially increase drawdown and oil rate at late life while providing a credible, quantified pathway to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under diesel and grid power. The evolution of a candidate well is followed from GL, through hydraulic solutions like jet pump (JP) and hydraulic piston pump (HPP), to an electric submersible pump (ESP). Converting from other artificial lift methods to ESPs is common in the industry, but few operators have evaluated the emissions benefits of the same. Inflow and outflow models were calibrated for the candidate well, with sensitivities on reservoir pressure, productivity index (0.7–2.5 stb/d/psi), water cut (60–95%) and free-gas handling, to cover a range of well and reservoir performance scenarios, in the absence of direct measurements of certain key parameters such as reservoir pressure. ESP designs were engineered with gas-handler and separator configurations, motor derating, and a variable speed drive (VSD) strategy suited to high water cut and high gas volume fraction (GVF) conditions. For the baseline GL, JP and HPP cases and the proposed ESP cases, lift energy and Scope 1 emissions were estimated using IPCC Tier 1 stationary combustion methodology, taking the specific fuel consumption of each generating set from its certified fuel-consumption table at the load factor actually carried, with boundaries set by the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard. The International Energy Agency (IEA) emission factors database was used for Scope 2 emissions from imported grid electricity. Modelled diesel-powered ESPs increased oil rate from 91.9 bopd (GL) to 228.0 bopd, an uplift of approximately 150%, sustained at 76% water cut. Lift-related emissions depended strongly on the power source: absolute emissions fell from 696 tCO2e/yr (GL) to 239 tCO2e/yr (ESP–diesel) and 76 tCO2e/yr (ESP–grid), reductions of 66% and 89% respectively. Emissions intensity per 1,000 barrels of oil improved from 20.74 tCO2e (GL) to 2.88 tCO2e (ESP–diesel) and 0.92 tCO2e (ESP–grid) giving improvements of 86% and 96% respectively. These gains reflect both the higher lift capability and production efficiency of the ESP relative to compression-driven GL, and the comparatively low grid emission factor (0.24 kg CO2e/kWh) available in the host country. For remote, gas-constrained brownfields with rising water cut, ESPs can unlock meaningful production uplift alongside large, standards-aligned emissions reductions under both power scenarios. Because the intensity gain is driven by simultaneous rate uplift and lower specific lift energy, the case is compelling even before grid electrification. A staged pilot is outlined with KPIs on production, reliability and run life, interventions and emissions. Deployment-ready ESP engineering for a remote West African onshore field is coupled here with fully quantified emissions accounting across diesel and grid power scenarios, demonstrating that lift-method selection is a high-leverage, near-term decarbonisation lever for late-life brownfields. The wider and novel implication is that re-lifting mature wellstock is itself a low-carbon supply option. The 136 bopd of incremental production obtained here comes from a well that was drilled, completed and tied into existing facilities decades ago, so the barrels carry none of the drilling, construction and infrastructure emissions of an equivalent greenfield development, and are delivered with a fraction of its capital exposure and cycle time. Extending the productive life of old fields is therefore shown to be a route to meeting global demand at lower emissions and lower cost than developing new ones, and the accounting framework set out here allows that case to be demonstrated on a standards-aligned basis rather than asserted.

• semanticscholar https://doi.org/10.2118/235440-msfirst seen 2026-11-05 05:41:44 · last seen 2026-11-06 05:16:39