Predictive Maintenance · ESP
ESP failures. Caught days early.
One unplanned ESP failure on a 500 BO/d well costs $200K-1M+ all-in (illustrative industry figures). Per-well ML on motor amps, intake pressure, and vibration catches bearing wear, motor-temp drift, and gas locking days before fixed-threshold SCADA would. That is the value of a single catch.
Four ESP signatures.
Signature
Bearing wear
ML detects
Vibration creeping above per-unit historical envelope
Root cause
Sand, gas slug, alignment, mechanical wear
Action
Schedule pull at 7-14 day window; not after motor seizure
Signature
Motor temperature drift
ML detects
Motor temp creeping above historical envelope
Root cause
Coolant flow loss, intake gas, downhole motor cavity gas
Action
Investigate intake first; motor pull only if downhole cooling confirmed lost
Signature
Gas locking
ML detects
Intake pressure spiking + discharge pressure falling
Root cause
GOR increase, packer leak, formation gas breakthrough
Action
Cycle VSD; investigate gas source; consider gas separator
Signature
Motor amp drift
ML detects
Amps rising at constant frequency
Root cause
Scale, bearing wear, increased fluid viscosity
Action
Chemical or pull window depends on root cause; ML attribution narrows it
Continue the cluster
ESP is one equipment class. The platform covers them all.
Other equipment classes
Predictive maintenance
- Rod Pump PM→
Fillage, gas interference, parted rod
- Gas Compressor PM→
Vibration, valve, oil temp
- Gas-lift well optimization→
Instability, valve loading
- Lift optimization, recommendation to execution→
What happens after the optimizer flags the unit
- All equipment signatures→
Capability deep-dive
- PM capability page→
Cross-equipment ML
- Decline Curve Software→
Anomaly detection baseline
The work it triggers
When ESP flags
Frequently asked
What production foremen ask about ESP ML.
What ESP failures does WorkSync detect?
Bearing wear (vibration trending), motor temperature drift (cooling failure), intake gas locking (intake pressure spike + discharge fall), motor amp drift at constant frequency (load increase). Each flagged days before fixed-threshold SCADA would catch it.
What is the cost of an ESP failure?
Illustrative industry figures: ESP replacement $50-200K depending on lift depth and pump size, plus rig mobilization. Deferred production during pull and replacement: $20-80K/day depending on well rate. Total exposure on a single unplanned failure typically $200K-1M+.
What is the lead time versus fixed SCADA thresholds?
Modeled lead times, which vary by signal density and history depth: vibration trending 3-14 days, motor-temp drift 1-7 days. The gas locking signature resolves before the well stops producing.
What data does it need?
Motor amps, intake pressure, discharge pressure, motor temperature, and vibration where the unit is instrumented. Any standard ESP VSD or surveillance telemetry carries those tags. SCADA gaps shorten the predictive lead time; deployment proceeds either way.
How does this relate to anomaly detection?
ESP signatures are one equipment class in the broader anomaly detection capability. See /capabilities/anomaly-detection for the full signature library.
What is the ROI math?
Illustrative industry math: one ESP failure caught 7 days early on a 500 BO/d well avoids roughly $280K of deferred production, on top of the $100K+ rig premium an emergency replacement carries. That is the value of a single catch.
See ESP ML on your wells.
4-week pilot on the stack you already own. Pick one field. Day 14 we show the at-risk units. Day 28 you decide, under the Impact Guarantee: we charge when your number moves.