SPE-186261-MS

Closed Loop Speed Control System of ESPCP with Capillary Tube

Shijia Zhu, Zhongxian Hao, Quanbin Wang, and Lixin Zhang, Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration &
Development CNPC

Copyright 2017, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE/IATMI Asia Pacific Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition held in Jakarta, Indonesia, 17-19 October 2017.

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
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Abstract
The ESPCP is a new rodless artificial lift, which completely gets rid of rod tubing wearing problems.
Because of the higher efficiency of the system, the advantage of energy saving makes the new system used
more and more widely in low production wells in CNPC. However, the working condition of system at
the bottom of the well is hard to monitor. The pump and the motor are in danger of burning out when the
dynamic liquid level is lower than the inlet.
In this paper, we introduce a closed loop control system with capillary tube to solve these problems. The
system can monitor the pressure at the bottom of the well, and calculate the dynamic liquid level using
downhole pressure and wellhead casing pressure. The system can adjust the speed of the motor according
to the dynamic liquid level. In this way, it achieves the closed loop speed control of the motor. The pressure
measurement cylinder was located above the pump preventing sand burial. The cylinder and the tube were
filled with nitrogen, so the pressure was transmitted through a capillary tube to the sensor on the ground.
We have tested the capillary tube measurement system in the lab, the results of the experiments showed
that the error of the measured pressure value was less than 5%. In this design, there is no semi-conductor
device at the bottom of the well. So the measurement no longer suffered from the temperature drift
of the sensors and the expensive price of high temperature resistance electronic devices. We have used
this measurement system with ESPCP in Jilin and Jidong oil field in two wells. The results of the field
experiments showed that the system can monitor the downhole pressure continually and it has been running
for 4 months. Moreover, we could get two key parameters, downhole pressure and dynamic liquid level, by
using this measurement system. It would be helpful for further system failure diagnosis.
The capillary tube downhole pressure measurement system was a cost-saving and stable system. It
achieved the closed loop control and prevented the evacuation problem in low production wells. Also it
makes contribution to the popularization of Electronic Submersible Progressing Cavity Pump (ESPCP).
This paper will present the details of this design and experiments.

Introduction
The majority of artificial lift equipments at the oil field are sucker rod pumping units in CNPC. The
development and supporting technology are all mature and widely used in every oil field. With the growth
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of deviated and horizontal wells and the increasing complexity of lifting liquid component, the proportion
of workovers caused by rod and tubing wear increases continually. About 30% of workovers are caused
by rod-tubing wear. The rising operation cost of workover and rod replacement is a major headache for
oil companies. Another problem of traditional artificial lift is low system efficiency, especially in stripper
wells. The ratio of the wells whose production is less than 5t/d is more than 70% at some oil field in later
development stage. In these wells, the majority of the motor's work is done on the rod lifting or rotating.
The ESPCP is rodlessartifical lift equipment. Because it overcomes the disadvantage of carrying sand
of ESP and it solves the rod-tubing wear problem completely, it has a wide range of applications. This
technology is applicable in deviated and horizontal wellsand also in heavy oil wellsand sandproducing
wells. On the other hand, the ESPCP is more efficient and consumes 20% less electricity than the traditional
ones. In the paper(Zhu,S.2016) the ESPCP is driven by permanent magnetic synchronous motor instead
of induction motor. The gear speed reducer is eliminated and the permanent magnetic motor with viable
frequency controller replaces it. In the paper(RUSHBY, M.J.2013), the pump in the system is located on the
upper end of the assembly to aid sand transportation and eliminate overheat failures. As the size of wellhole
is limited, this design will make a trade off between the diameter of motor and current channel size.
Because the majority of the ESPCP system is located at the downhole of the well, it is difficult to monitor
the working conditions of the system. We could only monitor the current and voltage values, so when
the system has some problems that could not be found on the electric parameters, the problem is hard to
be found in time. In this way, the problem could be even more serious after accumulation leading to the
short workover period of the well. On the other hand, it takes extra cost on workover and interference on
production. Therefore, the ESPCP needs a monitoring system for status observation, failure forecast and
fault analysis.
In SAGD wells, distributed fiber sensor could collect the pressure and temperature signal, and the
technology is mature (Kurashima, T. 1990)(Wang, A. 1992). Nevertheless, the price of fiber sensor and
optical modem is high. At the condition of low crude oil price nowadays, the optical fiber technology is not
suitable for low production wells. The monitoring technology using with ESP is mature (Ratcliff, D.E.2013).
But these two technologies have some differences as shown in Table 1. First, ESP uses induction motor
while ESPCP uses permanent magnetic motor. Second, the voltage of ESP is usually more than 1000 volts,
while the voltage of ESPCP is 380 volts. Third, the frequency of ESP control signal is 50Hz, while ESPCP
uses variable frequency controlling. Fourth, the control signals also have differentwaveforms, sine wave and
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) wave. When the monitoring system for ESP is working with ESPCP, the
signal would be interfered with by the higher harmonics of PWM waves. The signal cannot transmit to the
ground. Moreover, the electric devices have temperature drift and reliability problems when the temperature
is about 80 to 90 °C.

Table 1—Difference between ESP and ESPCP

ESP ESPCP

Motor Induction motor Permanent magnetic motor

Voltage (Volts) 1440 380

Frequency (Hz) 50 Variable frequency

Wave Form Sine wave PWM

In this paper, we introduce a new downhole pressure measurement system with capillary tube with
ESPCP. With the help of downhole pressure values, it achieves closed loop controlling. The second section
shows our design and idea. Then we show the laboratory experiment results and application results at oilfield
at the next part. Finally, conclusions are drawn at the end.
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Design of the system

In this design, thecontrol system has four parts. The pressure measurement cylinder andthe pressure
transmission tube are in the well;the pressure sensor with data collection andthe booster pump are on the
ground.
The principle of the measurement is that the gas in the capillary tube can transmit the annular pressure
up to the ground. The sensor on the ground gathers the pressure signal and converts the pressure into digital
signal. The gas in the capillary is nitrogen. Because nitrogen is chemically inert, it is safer to use and preserve
than the other inflammable gas. Moreover, nitrogen is easy to get and the price is not expensive when the
purity requirement is not serious. The pressure measurement cylinder is located downhole under the well
liquid. In the cylinder, the pressure of liquid equals the pressure of nitrogen. The pressure of the liquid is
the pressure of annulus that we need to know. Figure 1 shows the principle of the pressure measurement
system. We assumed that the pressure in the cylinder is equal to the pressure at the sensoron the ground, PB,
after the nitrogen pressure in the capillary is steady. In addition, we assumed that the pressure at the liquid
surface, at point A, PA equals the pressure at the ground. In this way, the difference between PA and PB is
the hydrostatic pressure of the liquid, Pl.

Figure 1—Principle of downhole pressure measurement

We can calculate the height of the liquid by the value of the pressure Pl. We use liquid pressure formula
to calculate the height of the liquid in the casing, h. The density of well liquid ?could be measured using
the well liquid lifted to the ground previously.
We can adjust the speed of the motor by the liquid height. When the liquid height is too large, the motor
speeds up in order to lift more well liquid. On the other hand, when the liquid height is too small, the motor
will slow down or stop to prevent the pump evacuation. In this way, it achieves the closed loop controlling
and production optimization.

In our design, the pressure cylinder must be a cavity under the well liquid level. In order to avoid the
impact to the production, the pressure cylinder occupies the tubing-casing annulus space. We use a pipe
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whose diameter is bigger than the tubing and fix the tubing through in the pipe. We set one hole at the top
side of the cylinder to connect the capillary and set six holes at the bottom side of the cylinder to make the
well liquid flow into the cylinder and make the gas flow out. In this way, it achieves anenclosed space to
the well liquid. The cylinder is 6 to 7 meters long. In this way, the space is big enough to avoidlarge amount
of well liquid flowing into the cylinder and blocking the capillary pipe by the sudden change of the annular
pressure. The pressure in the cylinder can be transmitted to the surface by the capillary. When the annular
pressure grows, the pressurewouldcompressthe nitrogen of the cylinder into the capillary tube. On the other
hand, when the annular pressure decreases, the nitrogen would expand and the liquid would flow out to the
casing. When the gas volume is larger than the cylinder volume, the extra nitrogen would discharge to the
annulus from the holes at the bottom of the cylinder.
Figure 2 shows the overall constructure of the closed loop system. The pressure measurement cylinder
is located above the pump, near the intake hole of the pump. In this way, the result of calculating dynamic
liquid level could be more accurate. The material of the measurement cylinder is 316L stainless steel, which
has good performance on pressure resistance and corrosion ressistance. In the Figure 2, the structure of pipe
string in the well from bottom to the top is the anchor, the permanent magnetic motor, the motor protector,
the flexible shaft, progressing cavity pump, the pressure measurement cylinder, the tubing and the wellhead.
The cable is specially custom-made. The cable is made of three copper cores, the insulation material and the
cable armor from core to periphery. The external diameter of the capillary tube is 1/8 inch, so we can put the
capillary tube in the insulation material and wrap them together with cable armor. In this way, thecapillary
tube is fixed in the cable. In addition, the armor can protect the capillary from scratching during the process
of downhole operation lowering the system and from corrosion of the liquid well. The internal diameter of
the capillary is 0.054 inch, and the weight of the capillary is only 5.3 kilograms per one hundred meters.
Therefore, it takes the cable little extra weight and little extra cost on transportation and maintenence. The
working pressure of the capillary is less than 30MPa, and the rupture pressure of the capillary is 70MPa.
The majority of the well pressure values, in which we use ESPCP, are less than 15MPa. The high-pressure
endurance capacity meets the security production requirement of oil field applications. The function of the
air pump is injecting the nitrogen to the capillary. On the other hand, the other function is flushing, to protect
the pressure sensor on the ground. Itcan blow the impurities out of the capillary to prevent the blocking.
Moreover, there is a one-way valve at the injection pump. In this way, the nitrogencannot flow back to the
pump when flushing the capillary, and it would reduce the leakage of nitrogen.
SPE-186261-MS 5

Figure 2—Architecture of the downhole pressure measurement system with ESPCP

Figure 3 shows the field application equipment. At the surface beside the wellhead, there is a pressure
sensor, a data collector, a data processor and a three-way valve in the connecting box. Before the production
begins, the cylinder should be inflated. When the tubing string is put in the well, and the operation is done,
we use a nitrogen vessel and an air pump to inflate the pressure measurement cylinder through the three-
way valveand the capillary. We pump the nitrogen into the capillary and check the injection pressure. When
the pressure value does not increase, we judge that the cylinder is filled with nitrogen. The extra nitrogen
will flow out of the cylinder through the bottom holes.
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Figure 3—Field application equipment

Laboratory experiments
We use this system to do some laboratory test and make sure the system would have good performance at
oil field. Because the capillary is over one thousand meters in field applications and the inner diameter of
the capillary is small, we were concerned that the pressure transmittion speed would be comparatively long.
To satisfy the field measurement requirement, we should evaluate the transmittion speed.
In order to simulate realistically field application in the experiments, we use 2 thousand meter capillary,
which is longer than the well depth in oil field application. We connect one side of the capillary to the air
pump, and connect the other side of the capillary to the pressure sensor. We use the air pump injecting
the nitrogen to the capillary and measure the air pressure at the other end. The difference with the field
application is that the capillary is woundonto a spool at surface, under the condition of room temperature,
as shown in the Figure 3(c).
Figure 4 shows the results of the laboratory experiments. We use three different values of pressure
injecting the nitrogen to one side of the capillary, 0.6MPa, 0.4MPa and 0.2MPa, and take notes on the
pressure value of the sensor on the other side. We record the time when the pressure increase to integer
multiple of 0.01MPa. The results show that under the three different pressure conditions, the pressure
increases slowly when the injection begins, then the value increases like logarithmic function. Because
the capillary is long, it would take some time to transimit thepressure pulse along the 2 thousand meter
capillary. After that, the pressure increases dramatically tobalance the pressure difference. The speed of
pressure growth is slower and slowerand the pressure tends to balance, because the pressure difference is
getting smaller. At last, the pressure in the capillary equals to the injection pressure. When the injection
pressure is 0.2MPa, the pressure is balanced after 43 minutes. When the injection pressure is bigger, the
pressure grows quickly at the beginning. Howerver, the time to balance would be longer. The balance time
is 56 minutes when the pressure is 0.4MPa and 75 minites when the pressure is 0.6MPa.
SPE-186261-MS 7

Figure 4—The results of pressure transmittion

The downhole pressure of the well and the well liquid level has few sudden changes in ESPCP field
application wells. However, the pressure measurement system achieves continuous measurement. The
measurement frequency satisfies the requirement of oil field applications.
The results show that the sensor can reflect the downhole pressure accurately, and the average error
is less than 5 percent. Moreover, as we know, the temperature of environment can influence the pressure
of the nitrogen seriously. According to the Clapeyron equation, when the volume remains constant, if the
temperature decreases, the pressure of the nitrogen will also decrease. When we use the system in the oil
field applications, the capillaryis fixed in the cable in the well. The well temperature is approximately a
constant. The temperature variation can only affect the capillary on the ground and the sensor. Therefore,
the temperature variation has little affectson the pressure value. Moreover, the the capillary and cylinder is
an enclosed vessel and the joint is static sealing. Some nitrogen leakage may happen at the seal of the jointof
capillary and valve. We should check the nitrogen in the capillary and add some nitrogen to the capillary
once per two months in order to make the system work well.

Field application
We use this pressure measurement system with ESPCP in two wells in Jilin oil field and Jidong oil field. The
system can real-time monitor the dynamic liquid level of production and permit the closed loop control the
motor to optimize the production. Based on the paper (Zhu, S. 2016),we update the remote monitoring and
controlling system. The previousversion of the system cantransimit 4 parameters including running speed,
three-phase current values. At this version, the number of parameters expands to 10 including three-phase
current values, three-phase voltage values, running speed of motor, active power, power factor, downhole
pressure and wellhead casing pressure. Figure 5 shows the remote controlling system user interface of the
well in Jilin oil field on remote computer. The figure shows that the downhole pressure is 7.42MPa.
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Figure 5—Remote monitor of data collector from well 1

Figure 6 shows the working condition of another well. The red line represents the current of the motor;
the pink line represents the downhole pressure of the well. The figure shows that when the well starts
production, the motor speed is 300 rpm and 260 rpm. The downhole pressure decreases continuously from
11MPa to 6MPa, with the dynamic liquid level decreasing from 900 meters to 200 meters. According to
the control rules, when it reaches the warning line of dynamic liquid level, 200 meters, the motor speed
slows down. As shown in the figure the speed is set to 200 rpm. After that, the dynamic liquid level and
downhole pressure keeps steady.

Figure 6—Data monitor of well 2

Conclusion
In this paper, we introduce a new closed loop control system with capillary tube with ESPCP. It monitors
the downhole pressure and calculates the dynamic liquid level to optimize the ESPCP production. The
laboratory experiment results show that the pressure transmittion speed could satisfy the field applications.
On the other hand, from the data we collect in the field application, the system achieves closed loop control
of the dynamic liquid level and optimizes the well production. Without electric components downhole in the
well, the closed loop control system mayalso be used in other submersible artificial lift wells. The cost of
the system is about 50% of the monitoring system used in Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP) installations.
Therefore, it would promote the new submersible artificial lift technology expanding in the oil field more
widely in the future.
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