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The oil industry has been for many years, growing and innovating technology over time. Economic cost is the main driver for changes that occur in our industry and the need to overcome a variety of challenges from reservoir to production to have a profitable well. Saudi Aramco as one of the largest operators worldwide have several fields that run completely on artificial lift, mainly ESPs, to produce. These ESPs are known to be prone to wear and tear, requiring replacement every few years. Conventionally through the use of a workover rig, these ESP and upper completion are replaced every so often. In recent years, the decline of the oil prices worldwide has cited the need to reduce capital & operational expenses to maximize the profitability in our economic analysis. Saudi Aramco, as a lead oil & gas operator is paving the way in alternative deployments method of ESP completion. This paper details Saudi Aramco’s successful deployment and qualification of a high rate, slim design alternative deployed ESP system. As part of the qualification criteria the system was successfully installed, removed and reinstalled three times over a six month period on slick-line.

Electric Submersible Pumps (ESPs) is very popular artificial lift systems to boost oil production now days. Home ofmany ESP installations, with high frequency of change outs per year and with the harsh production environment, a development of ESP technologies to reduce change-out time and improve run life is keep ongoing. These technologies address business challenges timely in a proactive approach. Currently deployed ESPs require a time-consuming rig installation on jointed tubing. With several factors such as: an average run life of three years for ESPs, a rig-based change-out time of up to two weeks offshore, and an uncertainty of when a rig can be scheduled; the need for a more rapid rigless solution is critical for future operations. Majority of the ESP installation are completed as part of tubing completion and deployed by drilling rig which requires high spending to recover the well during ESP replacement. Several types of technologies to deploy ESP rig-lessly were introduced into industry to optimize the retrieval and deployment cost during ESP replacement. Limited success story was recorded and open more thought to overcome the challenges. The first worldwide new reliable cable rigless deployed electrical submersible pumping (ESP) system was successfully installed and put on production. What makes this system unique concept and the first worldwide of its kind are two main components. The first component is the innovative cable hanger design that insures total cable isolation while providing a non-restricted flow through the tubes that are built into the body of the spool. The second component is the specially designed and manufactured CT from selected material that has high resistance to H2S and CO2 and it was made exactly fit the ESP cable providing full protection from corrosive wellbore fluid. This design aimed to boost production of oil wells with lower ESPs installation and replacement cost. The new system eliminates the need for and expensive rig to replace the ESP and accelerate production restoration. This system will be a great addition especially for offshore environments where not only the rig intervention costs are expensive, but also limited rig availability can delay ESP replacement. This paper will share the concept, design, field implementation planning and technical challenges, lesson learnt during preparation and installation of this first of kind system.