SPE 139810

Maximizing ESP Run Time through Synchronization of Generator Sets

Raed Al-Aslawi, Mohammad Al-Haimer, Anwar Al-Sharqawi, Alireza Zahedi, Abdulaziz Al-Najim, and Talal Al-Khonaini,
Chevron Corp.

Copyright 2011, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2011 SPE Production and Operations Symposium held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 27-29 March 2011.

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 officers, or
members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is
restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract

The South Fuwaris and Humma Fields are located in the Partitioned Zone between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The South Fuwaris
Field commenced production in 1963, with the majority of its production from the Lower Cretaceous Ratawi Limestone/Oolite
reservoir. The Humma Field was discovered in 1998, and has the only PZ production from the early Jurassic Marrat Formation.
95% of the wells in South Fuwaris and Humma produce via electrical submersible pumps (ESP).

The remote location of both fields requires all ESP systems to be powered by individual diesel generator sets located close to the
well heads. Based on the requirements of the preventive maintenance program for these generators, each generator set is scheduled
for lube oil/filter change every two weeks, at which time production is shut-in. The shut-ins result in a considerable volume of
deferred oil.

A recent Root Cause Analysis study of the historical failures of the downhole production assemblies of ESP-equipped South
Fuwaris and Humma producers revealed that a significant number of failures could be directly or indirectly attributed to the
produced solids settling back into the ESP after shutdown. When the well is shut down, the fluid column above the ESP drains
back into the wellbore through the pump, causing produced solids to be deposited in the ESP. This causes high current draw during
start up and eventually leads to motor or cable failure, in many cases resulting in complete seizure of the ESP shaft.

To avoid the production loss and ESP failures that result from well shut in, the asset management teams in South Fuwaris and
Humma have developed a method for keeping wells on line while generator sets undergo lube oil/filter change.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the downhole ESP is kept running while its power generator undergoes scheduled
preventive maintenance work. The paper also demonstrates the in-field applicability of the generator set synchronization technique
to the oilfield operations, and how this technique has maximized ESP run time in Humma and South Fuwaris Fields, saving Wafra
Joint operations greater than $10 MM annually. As more new wells are being drilled and produced, the annual dollar savings
increase even further, through the use of a simple and cost-effective process.
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Introduction

The South Fuwaris and Humma fields are located in the Partitioned Neutral Zone (PNZ) of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
(Figure 1).

The South Fuwaris field was discovered in 1957 and put on production in the 1960s. The reservoir drive mechanism is
solution gas with weak aquifer support. The field is producing predominantly 24º API oil. The majority (~96%) of the oil
production is lighter grade crude (~24º API gravity) from the Ratawi Limestone and Ratawi Oolite and most of the
remaining production is the heavier grade crude (13-22º API gravity) from the Maastrichtian.

The Humma Marrat reservoir was discovered in 1998 and put on production in 1999. Depletion mechanism is fluid
expansion drive with very weak to no aquifer support. Reservoir pressure is at or slightly below the bubble point pressure.
Humma Marrat reservoir has 3 main pay sections referred to as Marrat A, C, and E zones. The field is producing
predominantly 36º API oil.
Both South Fuwaris and Humma fields are producing from tight carbonate reservoirs with 95% of the wells operated on
electrical submersible pumps (ESP).

Advantages
The main advantages of application of generator set synchronization process to Genset-Powered ESPs are:
• Reduction of oil deferment (Figures 2-3)
• Minimizing overall life-cycle cost of ESP (reducing operating expense)
• Increased cumulative ESP run-life
• Decrease well workover frequency (ESP failures)

Main Components of the System

The main components of the generator sets synchronization system (Figures 4-6) are:
• Fixed generator set
• Portable generator set
• Fixed breaker
• VSD (fixed)
• Synchronization control system
• Synchronization control panel (used to start, stop, synchronize gensets, and also to monitor voltage, current and
frequency of the gensets)

Power Supply Transfer Mechanism

Backup generators generally fall into two main categories (Figure 7):
• “Transfer switch” category: When the “mains supply*” fails, the load is left without power until the back-up
generator set is started. Once the set is available, the transfer switch changes over so that the load is supplied by the
back-up generator. Typically the down time will be around 15 seconds, but it maybe longer depending upon the
time taken to run the back-up generator set to nominal speed. When the “mains supply” returns, the load-switching
device (contactors/breakers) will momentarily remove power from the load (typically 1 second) before transferring
the load back to the “mains supply” power.
• “No break transfer” category:
- The break in power supply when transferring back to the mains can be eradicated by synchronizing the backup
generator supply to the returned mains supply and closing the supplies in parallel with each other for a short period of
time. Then, the back-up generator load switch is opened, returning the mains to supply the power to the load. There
has been no break in the supply to the load during this return transfer process.
- Terms often used for this process are “bump-less transfer”, “no break return”, and “no break transfer”.
- The same process can be used to transfer from mains supply to the back-up generator set.
- The oilfield synchronization process uses “no break transfer” category of transfer mechanism.
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Synchronization Process
For the fixed and portable generators to be synchronized the following four conditions must be satisfied:
• Both generators are running at the same frequency (This condition is obtained by adjustment of the speed of the
driver of the generator).
• The generator sets’ voltages are equal.
• The generator sets’ voltages are in phase with each other and phase sequences are the same.

The task of keeping a well on line through the application of the synchronization process (when its generator set is due for a
lube oil/filter change) involves the following steps:
• Generator sets are synchronized (ESP continues to run with no interruptions)
• Fixed Generator set is shut-in for preventive maintenance (ESP continues to run with no interruptions)
• Preventive maintenance job is completed and fixed generator set is started and synchronized with the portable
generator set (ESP continues to run with no interruptions)
• Portable generator set is shut-in (ESP continues to run with no interruptions)

The critical steps of the synchronization process are listed below (Figure 8):

1. Connect portable Genset power cables to the termination points of the local breaker panel (Fixed Genset is on and is
supplying the ESP system with power through the local breaker panel).
2. Switch the local breaker panel from off to on position.
3. Connect portable Genset to fixed Genset through the communication cable (this connection is necessary for load
sharing and synchronizing of Gensets).
4. Start the portable Genset up and turn its synchronization switch to on position and wait for five minutes.
5. At this stage the total load of the ESP system would be shared equally between the two Gensets.
6. Turn the soft unloading switch of the fixed Genset to on position. Load on the fixed Genset would be transferred to
portable Genset in ~30 seconds.
7. On completion of portable Genset’s soft unloading, its load would be zero and its breaker would open automatically.
8. Shut down the fixed Genset and perform the maintenance work.
9. On completion of the maintenance work start the fixed generator and turn its synchronization switch to on position.
10. At this stage the total load of the ESP system would be shared equally between the two Gensets.
11. Turn the soft unloading switch of the portable Genset to on position. Load on the portable Genset would be
transferred to fixed Genset in ~30 seconds.
12. Shut down the portable Genset.
13. Switch the local breaker panel from on to off position.
14. Disconnect and Remove the power cables of the portable generator from the local breaker panel.
15. Close the breaker panel cover and move the portable Genset to the next location.

Success Indictors
The number of ESP failures and downtime hours were selected by the South Fuwaris and Humma asset management teams
as the two main indicators that could be used to measure and rate the overall success of the synchronization process (first
field implementation date of early 2010). Figures 9-11 show comparative presentations of these two success indicators for
2008-2010.

Conclusions

1. The implementation of the generator set synchronization process successfully reduced the number of ESP failures and
operationally-induced interventions, resulting in improved ESP runtime and reduction of deferred oil to zero.
2. Close supervision and adaptation on-site by the field personnel allowed for an effective implementation of the
synchronization process. The first few field trials necessitated several pre-job meetings with contractors and service
personnel.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Petroleum, Saudi Arabian Chevron, and Kuwait Gulf Oil Company for
their permission to publish and present this paper.
We would like to further recognize our colleagues and partners who have made many direct and indirect contributions to
this work.

Figure 1 – Location of South Fuwaris Field in PNZ

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Figure 2 – Deferred oil due to fixed Genset preventative maintenance work

Figure 3 – Major steps of the synchronization process

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Figure 4 – Main components of the synchronization process

Figure 5 – Fixed breaker

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Figure 6 – Portable generator set

Figure 7 – Power Supply Transfer Mechanism (Left: Transfer switch category, Right: No break transfer category)
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Figure 8 – ESP power supply (pre-Sync and Sync periods)

Figure 9 – Historical Failures for 2008-2010

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Figure 10 – Historical downtime for 2008-2010 (Humma)

Figure 11 – Historical downtime for 2008-2010 (South Fuwaris)