Cleon Dunham, Oilfield Automation Consulting Bill Lane, Weatherford Guillermo Leal, BP James Martin, Consultant Cem Sarica, University of Tulsa Rob Sutton, Marathon Oil Co.
The vast majority of new wells being drilled for both oil and gas production are horizontals. Many of these wells require artificial lift to produce the oil wells and/or deliquify the gas wells. But artificial lift of horizontal wells presents many challenges.
Due to the large focus on drilling, completing, and operating horizontal wells for gas and oil production, especially in the greatly expanding shale developments, 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 will discuss the status of this effort and present some of the challenges that the members of the Consortium are facing.