Solar Powered Pump for a Remote Oil Well in Nigeria

Abstract

Most times, stripper oil wells, i.e. well with a production rate below 15 barrels of oil per day, are dumped by the oil production company because the cost of production and maintenance does not tally with the production rate. This low production from these oil wells is primarily due to oil spillage. Oloibiri oil well in Nigeria is an example of such failure; due to the diminishing production rate in 1960, the oil well became abandoned with an initial oil production rate of 5,100 barrels per day. Eighteen drilled wells are in the Oloibiri oil site, and oil well 17 is only the well that can be described as a stripper well. Due to the high solar irradiance and solar insolation in Nigeria, the PV system is implemented into the methodology and a design of a solar-powered pump that should lift the oil from the depth of 3800m with a flow rate of 15 barrels of oil per day. The system design will be calculated, compared with the PVsyst and HOMER sizing, and the pump performance will be evaluated.