Jet pump performance analysis and optimization plan

By observing the oil and gas industry we can estimate that up to 90%, if not more, of the world's wells are currently using artificial lift systems and the rest, will be using artificial lift at a certain point of their lives if not abandoned due to economic reasons. The selection of the most economic system is necessary for operators to achieve the maximum potential of the production of their fields, which also arises challenges that come along with artificial lifting operations. One of the major challenges is workover. The unavailability of workover rigs and the mean time between failures have contributed to the decrease of the profitability of the wells. These issues pushed engineers to think of an alternative. A jet pump was initially implemented as a backup for an electric submersible pump that failed to reduce the production deferment until the start of the workover. However, several failures have occurred in a short period of time and the selection of the optimum pump was a challenge. This master thesis was conducted to investigate the actual jet pump performance and review all failure and recommend any optimization possibilities. The aim of this thesis is also to design jet pump using state of the art integrated asset modeling. Finally, a jet pump design tool was created to select the optimum nozzle-throat size, and determine injection rates to reach the highest production potential by also taking into consideration possible cavitation problems.