Erosion and impact tests were performed on downhole valves with different materials to determine the best valve configuration for the field conditions. Due to premature failures (less than 1 year of operation) in three wells caused by erosion of the valves, a complete investigation was conducted. First, the history of rod pumps installed in Caño Limón Field was analyzed to obtain configuration statistics of valves installed since 2005. Six different configurations were analyzed, including valves installed in failed and running wells. These configurations included six different ball metallurgies and two different seat metallurgies, combined in double valve setups installed in the pumps. The six valve setups were compared with the average run life and reservoir conditions to determine the best configuration for Caño Limón field. The statistics alone were not clear enough to determine the best configuration for the field, so a laboratory bench was designed to test the different ball and seat metallurgy configurations. Silicon nitride balls were selected due to their resistance to abrasion, fluid cutting, and impact. The statistics showed good performance when installing silicon nitride balls with tungsten carbide seats, combined with titanium balls and tungsten carbide seats. But when installing single or double silicon nitride balls with tungsten carbide seats, the run time was less than 100 days. The laboratory tests were performed for titanium carbide, silicon nitride, and 440C balls, all of them with tungsten carbide seats. The erosion and wear tests were performed simulating the flow of a slurry around the ball. Silicon nitride balls showed less erosion than titanium carbide and 440C balls. The impact test was performed simulating the downhole pumping action, where the ball is impacted against the seat in a slurry made of water, polymer, and frac sand. Silicon nitride balls showed less wear than titanium carbide and 440C balls, but the seat working with silicon nitride ball showed higher wear than the other metallurgies. When installing single or double silicon nitride balls, the seat wear was higher than when combined when another metallurgy. It was possible to correlate the lab test results with the pump failures to determine the best configuration for the application. When selecting the valve assembly's metallurgy, it is important to take into consideration not only the properties of the materials, but the effect of combining different metallurgies. Before standardizing an equipment change, field trials and lab tests should be performed.

Abstract-Success of teleoperation tasks for mobile robots in disaster scenarios depends largely on the skills of the operator. This article proposes a solution to facilitate this task with two UGVs working together in a master-slave structure. The slave robot is used as an external mobile camera, being able to select the best view for each situation, as you can do in video games. This method has several advantages for overcoming challenging situations that can be found in the mission and it has been tested in the Eurathlon Challenge with good results, completing the tasks in less time and with less stress for operators.

In the Llanos Norte area, ESP systems represent 92% of the installed artificial lift systems. According to the current production strategy in this field, there is a need for intervention in low quality sand. The design of the artificial lift system is affected by the uncertainty of the productivity index and expected flow rates. 25% of the completions designed for low flows have had deviations greater than or equal to 50% between the design parameters and the actual parameters. This condition has led to the search for alternatives for intervention and completion of this type of wells, this because the conventional technology of the pumps used historically in the field does not allow producing efficiently in such a wide uncertainty production ranges. Service Provider, from the hand of the Operator implemented a pump called FLEX-ER (extended range pump). This solution allows extending the range of the efficiency cone of the pump from 50BFPD and up to 2900BFPD, this feature helps to mitigate the uncertainty in the available design parameters, keep the pump in the optimal ranges of operation, avoid the up and down wear of the stages, thus increasing the lifetime of the electrosubmersible system. The implementation of this technology has allowed having an ESP equipment available to cover the production needs of the wells in low quality sands of northern plains. The wide range of operation of this stage allows to be protected against uncertainty in productivity and facing the changes that the well may have during its production stage. Additionally, the implementation evaluation model for 8 wells resulted in a projected saving of USD 1.4 million, as a consequence of the reduction in intervention costs, energy consumption and NPT reduction. According to these results, it is expected for the next well drilling and reconditioning campaigns, including the standardization of the technology in order to optimize the production processes of Occidental. This paper aims to present the most important technology implementations, follow up and results as well as the impact in field performance KPI.