Artificial lift of oil is enabled by the technological mode of an electric submersible pump (ESP). Historically the steady-state mode (or according to the field terminology «constant operating well stock») of ESP operation is most commonly used. However, in recent decades, various non-stationary modes of well operation have become widespread in field practice (periodic short activation – short cycle; automatic recurrent activation – long cycle; alternation of frequencies – cycle with not zero frequency while accumulating liquid in annulus). One of the reasons for changing steady-state operation mode to periodic one is transient fluid inflow from the reservoir into the wellbore. The actual issue is to determine the interrelation between the resource life and technological modes of constant and periodic operation of ESP wells in order to predict the reliability of submersible pumping units. This article shows the statistical analysis of one of Western Siberia field ESP wells operation for ten years period (2014–2023). The operation features and different modes effects on ESP reliability have been investigated. The changeout of operation mode effect on mean time between failures (MTBF) has been found out. As a result of the upper-level analysis the features of different ESP operation modes (steady-state mode, periodic short activation mode and automatic recurrent activation mode) development have been defined, taking into account the transformation of technological and business processes.
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