Subsea Electrical Submersible Pump Significance in Petroleum Offshore Production

The use of pumping methods in offshore applications has become common especially in viscous oil production. This follow from the fact they present better efficiency and higher production rate than other lift methods when used in the same conditions, for instance gas lift. Thus, a lift method that has been often used on this scenario due to its satisfactory results is the subsea electrical submersible pump (subsea ESP). This article presents the modeling and simulations of petroleum production facilities equipped with subsea ESP using a commercial software package, the pipesim® from Schlumberger. The production facilities consist of a single vertical producing well completed through its whole thickness in an offshore reservoir. It has been proposed two configurations differing only on the location of the equipment. In the first case, the subsea ESP was installed inside the wellbore and, in the second case on the seabed downstream the wet X-tree. The production rate was simulated for both cases, allowing comparison of the results of each configuration.