ESP selection: $1.5M saved per well

Problem

An upstream operator was selecting electric submersible pumps (ESPs) using vendor specs and rule-of-thumb sizing. Mis-sized pumps under-produced or burned out early — multi-million-dollar mistakes hidden in each individual well’s ledger.

Approach

R2 built an ESP-selection workflow combining SubPUMP for hydraulic modeling, Monte Carlo simulation over reservoir-uncertainty distributions, Weibull failure economics for projected lifecycle cost, and bending-stress analysis. The workflow ranks candidate pumps on expected NPV over the well’s production life, not nameplate flow.

Result

On a typical well, the selected pump saved $1.5M over the previous selection process — reduced failure rate, longer mean time between intervention, and better-matched flow.