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History of the ESP Workshop
The Beginnings of the ESP Workshop
The Electric Submersible Pump Workshop had its beginning in 1982 when three engineers - Bill Capps (THUMS, Long Beach), Bill Bartlett (Exxon Production Research Co.), and Dean Grant (Esso Resources Canada), later joined by Buford Neely (Shell) - came up with the idea. They proposed setting up an informal forum type discussion on electric submersible pumps between major users of this form of artificial lift. From these discussions they wanted to determine the strengths and weaknesses of ESPs and come up with solutions to eliminate or correct some of the problems thereby improving operating results. At that time, Shell and Exxon, because of their participation in the ownership of THUMS Long Beach Co., had access to a large amount of ESP information from THUMS (THUMS being the largest user of electrical submersible pumps in the United States at that time). However, the producers felt that they could get an even wider selection of data by bringing in the experience of operators from other producing areas.
It was first proposed to have these discussions between major users of ESPs at an EPRCO conference center. However, the EPRCO legal group vetoed this idea because of possible conflicts with anti-trust laws. To stay perfectly legal they recommended that the meeting should be sponsored by an industry group such as the API or SPE. The API was not interested, so Bill Bartlett contacted the Houston Northside SPE of which he was an active member. The Houston Northside group was interested and agreed to sponsor the first workshop, which was called the SPE Submersible Pump Roundtable.
The first Electrical Submersible Pump Workshop or Roundtable was held in a small meeting room at The Woodlands Inn on October 4, 1982. Total attendance at this first meeting was 60 and was made up of both users and manufacturers. The form of this first meeting consisted of a panel of experts that sat at one long table in the front of the room. Each expert led off with a discussion of a particular problem or pumping experience and then answered questions from the audience or other panel members. The first panel consisted of Buford Neely (Shell), Jack Blann (EPRCO), Bill Capps (THUMS), Jim Lea (AMOCO), Herald Winkler (Texas Tech), Dean Grant (ESSO Resources Canada) and P. A. Dean (ESSO Resources Canada).
Since this first workshop started out as an operator's roundtable, many problems and complaints discussed came from an operators point of view. Consequently, the manufacturers received a fair amount of abuse. They could only respond to criticisms or complaints from the floor, not able to put their best foot forward. This, of course, changed over the years, and now they have a major voice in workshop proceedings - they present a significant number of papers each year.
Since the first meeting was such a great success, a second meeting was scheduled at the Sofitel Hotel in Houston on April 5 - 6, 1984. Bill Bartlett also handled the arrangements for the second meeting which included a two day program of presentations from both users and manufacturers. The panel of experts, Buford Neely (Shell), Bill Caps (THUMS), Jim Lea (AMOCO), Herald Winkler (Texas Tech) and Dean Grant (ESSO Resources Canada) was also used in 1984. They were joined by Marcuss Durham (ARCO) and John Soloman (Taurus). This group became known as the Permanent Panel. They should be given considerable credit for their contributions in making the first ESP roundtables successful and over the years making improvements for the workshop.
The panel once again sat at the front of the room and asked questions of the speakers and commented on the information that was presented. A large number of both users and manufacturers attended the 1984 meeting. It was after this second meeting that Karen Draper began helping Bill Bartlett with the meeting organization and the workshop assumed its current format. Karen assumed full responsibility in 1990 and under her leadership the workshop has grown each year until it has reached its current status as one of the largest SPE technical meetings.
Based on the success of the Houston ESP Workshop, others have sprung up in Long Beach, California, where 2 - 3 have been held, and in Aberdeen, Scotland where they hold one every other year. Bill Bartlett co-hosted a workshop in Beijing, China in 1992.
*This brief history has been prepared by Jack R. Blann, Bill Bartlett and Dr. Herald Winkler.