2022 ALW Presentation: A Brief (and Incomplete) Review of ML/AI Applications in Artificial Lift

Rajan Chokshi, PhD – Accutant Solutions LLC

Artificial lift digitization generates large amounts of data used by operators for surveillance and improving the function and health of lift equipment, surface facilities, wellbore, and possibly reservoir. The move towards digital transformation, ML/AI application in artificial lift space is considered a ‘low-hanging’ fruit. However, there is a considerable FUD and FOMO regarding ML/AI applications amongst artificial lift practitioners. This talk presents a few reported and not-reported use cases of ML/AI in ESP, plunger lift, and rod pumping applications. The inputs (feature sets), solution methodology, and outcomes are discussed and compared for each use case. After an ML/AI model is developed, significant efforts and infrastructure are required to deploy and manage ML/AI models. A key takeaway is that the successful ML/AI deployments succeed with active participation from artificial lift practitioners.