Our Innovation Analysts recently looked into emerging technologies and up-and-coming startups working on innovative solutions for the energy sector. As there is a large number of startups working on a wide variety of solutions, we want to share our insights with you. This time, you will discover 5 promising startups developing artificial lift solutions.
Heat Map: 5 Top Artificial Lift Solutions
Using our StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 1.379.000+ startups & scaleups globally, we looked at innovation in the field of oil, gas, and petroleum extraction. For this research, we identified 84 relevant solutions and picked 5 to showcase below. These companies were chosen based on a data-driven startup scouting approach, taking into account factors such as location, founding year, and relevance of technology, among others. Depending on your specific criteria, the top picks might look entirely different.
The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights 5 startups & scaleups developing advanced artificial lift solutions. Moreover, the Heat Map reveals regions that observe a high startup activity and illustrates the geographic distribution of all 84 companies we analyzed for this specific topic.
Valiant Artificial Lift Solutions – Electric Submersible Pumps
Idle and marginal wells still possess some reserves of oil that are extractable with the help of an artificial lift. Technologies that enable artificial lift include hydraulic pumping systems, electric submersible pumps, gas lifts, as well as rod pumps, and subsurface pumping. Internet of Things (IoT) sensors further allows for identifying the pressure and temperature inside the well. Startups combine various industry 4.0 techniques to maximize well productivity and achieve optimal artificial lift.
The US-based startup Valiant Artificial Lift Solutions develops pumping solutions to create artificial lifts. The startup’s portfolio includes electric submersible pumping (ESP) solutions that enable improved artificial lift while minimizing the surface footprint. As a result, well operators achieve production targets in a safe and efficient manner. Valiant also provides installation, manufacturing, operation, and repair of ESP systems for conventional waterfloods and unconventional horizontal wells.
Geolis – Electro-Centrifugal Pumping
A couple of advantages of centrifugal pumps are its high flow-rate capabilities and relatively simple engineering. Gas lift systems are sometimes combined with a surface-operating horizontal centrifugal pump to gain an additional boost of energy. With the help of variable speed drives, the electro-centrifugal pumping operation is controlled to achieve maximum artificial lift. This technique is also suitable for application in the case of nearly dry wells. Startups develop innovative gas lift solutions as an alternative approach to achieve artificial lift.
Mexican startup Geolis offers comprehensive artificial lift solutions for optimizing oil production assets. The startup’s solutions include hydraulic jet pumps, electro-centrifugal pumps, and pneumatic pumps. The startup leverages conventional artificial lift technology to increase productivity through a positive displacement pump, handling temperatures up to 120 degrees centigrade, and oil density greater than 8 API, the American Petroleum Institute’s crude density index. Geolis also offers CoreWell, a tool to monitor and centralize data generation from active wells and production equipment.
Upwing Energy – Permanent Magnet-enabled Artificial Lift
Declining reserves of fossil fuels and growing environmental concerns are forcing crude oil manufacturers to maximize the productivity of existing wells instead of exploring newer reserves. Advancements in industry 4.0 enable companies to optimize their artificial lift operations. For example, motors powered by permanent magnets are more energy-efficient and have higher output power in comparison to traditional induction motors and submersible pumps. Startups develop permanent magnet motors as solutions to cut costs pertaining to artificial lift.
The US-based startup Upwing Energy provides artificial lift solutions that leverage the power of permanent magnets. Upwing’s subsurface compressor system (SCS) is a high-speed downhole compressor system that uses a magnetic levitation-based permanent magnet motor to increase natural gas production. The startup’s magnetic coupling technology further allows the motor system to remain completely isolated from the downhole environment. This process brings considerable improvements to the motor’s operational life.
Well-SENSE – Fiber Optic Sensing for Gas Lift Optimization
Low-flow wells first allow reservoir fluids to accumulate within the tubing before injecting gas to extract petroleum hydrocarbons. This process, called intermittent gas lift, enables maximum productivity in a low-static reservoir pressure enabling oil manufacturers to optimize costs. Startups develop gas lift solutions for extracting petroleum hydrocarbons from oil wells.
UK-based startup Well-SENSE uses distributed fiber optics sensing to understand wells in terms of leakage detection and micro-seismic activity. The startup uses fiber optic sensors to gather distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) data for optimizing artificial gas lifts. Additionally, the startup uses the DAS data to measure the Joule-Thomson effect and identify levels of carbon dioxide to inject to enable gas lift and enhanced oil recovery (EOR).
Lift Well International – Liquid-Assisted Gas-Lift (LAGL)
The liquid-assisted gas-lift concept utilizes the co-injection of liquid with gas to eliminate the use of downhole valves and reduce surface pressure requirements. This reduces the risk of tubing-to-casing leaks and the frequency of well interventions while improving well integrity and safety. This is why startups offer LAGL-based artificial lifts for oil, gas, and petroleum companies.
US-based startup Lift Well International develops Lift POD technology that leverages LAGL for conventional vertical and unconventional wells. The startup’s solution allows oil and gas production companies to remove heavier fluids and sand from the wellbore without high-pressure equipment. Besides, this technology eliminates the need for downhole equipment, reducing production costs.
What About The Other 79 Solutions?
While we believe data is key to creating insights it can be easy to be overwhelmed by it. Our ambition is to create a comprehensive overview and provide actionable innovation intelligence and enable you to achieve your goals faster. The 5 artificial lift solutions showcased above are promising examples out of 84 we analyzed for this article. To identify the most relevant solutions based on your specific criteria, get in touch.
