US 12,460,538 B2
System and method for controlling artificial lift units
Manoj M. Nimbalkar, Houston, TX (US); Bimal Venkatesh, Katy, TX (US); Ryan S. Ackerman, San Luis Obispo, CA (US); and Dean A. Calder, Kingwood, TX (US)
Assigned to Weatherford Technology Holdings, LLC, Houston, TX (US)
Appl. No. 17/769,831
Filed by Weatherford Technology Holdings, LLC, Houston, TX (US)
PCT Filed Oct. 30, 2020, PCT No. PCT/US2020/058261
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Apr. 18, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/091792, PCT Pub. Date May 14, 2021.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/931,071, filed on Nov. 5, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0381120 A1, Dec. 1, 2022
Int. Cl. G05B 19/418 (2006.01); E21B 47/009 (2012.01); F04B 47/02 (2006.01); G05B 13/02 (2006.01); F04B 49/06 (2006.01)
CPC E21B 47/009 (2020.05) [F04B 47/028 (2013.01); G05B 13/0265 (2013.01); G05B 19/41875 (2013.01); F04B 49/065 (2013.01)] 21 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of controlling a plurality of artificial lift units at a plurality of wellsites, the artificial lift units including jet pumps operated by surface power units, the artificial lift units having installed controllers, installed sensing equipment, and installed communication systems, the method comprising:
interfacing distributed processing equipment with the installed controllers and the installed communication systems at the plurality of the wellsites;
connecting the distributed processing equipment together in one or more networks;
obtaining, at the distributed processing equipment, operating parameters of each of the artificial lift units from the installed sensing equipment at the wellsites in real time;
analyzing, with modelling functions of the distributed processing equipment, trends of the operating parameters of at least the jet pumps of the artificial lift units by tracking declines in production of the jet pumps at the wellsites;
predicting, with automated machine learning of the distributed processing equipment, conditions of at least the jet pumps of the artificial lift units based on the analyzed trends by predicting deleterious operation of the jet pumps going into cavitation leading to damage of the jet pumps based on the tracked declines, the deleterious operation requiring a manual correction;
determining, with the distributed processing equipment, at least one temporary automated control configured to counteract the predicted conditions of at least the jet pumps of the artificial lift units by determining outputs of the surface power units of the jet pumps, the outputs being configured to mitigate the jet pumps going into cavitation as a remedial correction at least until the manual correction is performed; and
regulating the output of each of the surface power units to adjust a fluid state configured to mitigate cavitation of at least the jet pumps by implementing the at least one temporary automated control with instructions communicated from the distributed processing equipment to the installed controllers of at least the jet pumps.