Life Cycle Assessment of Electro-Submersible Pump Systems: Carbon Footprint Mitigation Using Improved Downhole Technology

Climate change has driven global awareness of environmental issues, leading to the adoption of clean technologies aimed at reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. An effective method to assess environmental mitigation is the quantification of the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) in the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of production processes. In the oil extraction industry, artificial lift systems use electro submersible pumps (ESPs) that can now incorporate new operating principles based on permanent magnet motors (PMMs) and CanSystem (CS) as an alternative to traditional normal induction motors (NIMs) and can help lower the carbon footprint. This study compares the PCF of ESPs equipped with PMMs and CS versus NIMs, using LCA methodologies in accordance with ISO 14067:2018 for defining the Functional Unit (FU) and ISO 14064-1:2019 to calculate the GHG inventory and the amount of CO2 equivalent per year. The analysis spans five key stages and 14 related activities. For ESPs with NIMs, this study calculated 999.9 kg of raw materials, 1491.66 kW/h for manufacturing and storage, and 5.77 × 104 kW/h for use. In contrast, ESPs with PMMs and CS required 656 kg of raw materials and consumed 4.44 × 104 kW/h during use, resulting in an 23% reduction in energy consumption. This contributed to an 21.9% decrease in the PCF. The findings suggest that PMMs and CS offer a sustainable solution for reducing GHG emissions in oil extraction processes globally.