Cleon Dunham, Oilfield Automation Consulting Bill Lane, Weatherford Guillermo Leal, BP James Martin, Consultant Cem Sarica, Univ. of Tulsa Rob Sutton, Marathon Oil
The vast majority of new wells being drilled for both oil and gas production are horizontals. At some point most of these wells will require artificial lift to produce the liquid hydrocarbons and/or dewater the gas wells, but artificial lift of horizontal wells presents many challenges. Artificial lift can be particularly challenging in the shale assets in which the wells are often deep with long lateral sections.
To address these challenges, the Artificial Lift R&D Council (ALRDC) invited a large number of companies to form a Consortium to develop new methods and understanding for advancing artificial lift of these wells. This Consortium is being led by the University of Tulsa. This paper discusses the status of this effort and presents some of the challenges that the members of the Consortium
are facing.