Mitch Means and Chris Shafer, Baker Hughes
The status quo continuous chemical injection systems are labor intensive to manually collect data, interpret that data, and implement changes to the treatment via multiple trips to the well site. This results in higher chemical cost, inefficient use of manpower, greater HSE exposure, and lag time for execution. These issues are intensified on electric submersible pump (ESP) wells where higher flow rates require more chemical usage and failure to monitor the treatment program appropriately can result in costly workovers. A "smart" chemical injection system can make possible real-time decisions at the well site and remotely transmitting data for automatic analysis and reporting. This optimized system will inject chemical on-demand, based on inferred flow characteristics from the ESP motor controller, track on-site chemical inventories, and report through a dynamic web-based monitoring system. While these basic principles are transferrable to any continuous chemical injection system, focus will be on ESP production wells.