Detailed Energy Accounting of Electrical Submersible Pumping Systems

David Grassian and Daniel Olsen
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David Grassian: Program in Systems Engineering, Walter Scott Jr. College of Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1301, USA
Daniel Olsen: Program in Systems Engineering, Walter Scott Jr. College of Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1301, USA

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-24

Abstract: The concept of energy return on investment (EROI) is applied to a set of electrical submersible pumps (ESPs) installed on a small offshore platform by conducting a detailed energy accounting of each ESP. This information is used to quantify the energy losses and efficiencies of each ESP system as well as the EROI of the lifting process (EROI Lifting ), which is derived by dividing the energy out of each well, which is the chemical energy of the crude oil produced, by the energy consumed by each ESP system and by the surface equipment used to dispose of the well’s produced water. The resulting EROI Lifting values range from 93 to 565, with a corresponding energy intensity range of 18.3 to 3.0 kWh/barrel of crude. The energy consumed by each well is also is used to calculate the lifting costs, which is the incremental cost of producing an additional barrel of crude oil, which range from 0.64 to 3.90 USD/barrel of crude. The lifting costs are entirely comprised of procured diesel fuel, since there is no natural gas available on the platform to be used as fuel. Electrical efficiencies range from 0.60 to 0.80, while Hydraulic efficiencies range from 0.12 to 0.56. The overall ESP efficiencies range from 0.09 to 0.39, with the largest losses occurring in the hydraulic system, particularly within the ESP pump itself. Improvement of pump efficiencies is the only practical option to improve the overall ESP system efficiencies. Other losses within the electrical and hydraulic systems present few opportunities for improvement.

Keywords: oil and gas; energy accounting; EROI; energy intensity; lifting energy; Electrical Submersible Pumps; lifting cost (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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