Top 5 Production Equipment Challenges

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EnerCorp offers a range of sand management solutions for operators.

From heaters to sand separators to tanks to measurement tools, every piece of equipment plays an important role in production. Equipment reliability is mission-critical. Operators rely on consistent uptime, safe operations, and cost-effective production. If equipment is damaged or malfunctioning, you’ll immediately feel it in your bottom line.

As sand loads fluctuate, wells decline, and fluid composition changes, equipment that once worked perfectly can begin to struggle. You’ll notice sand erosion, bottlenecks, and unplanned maintenance, which means your productivity may be impacted. These are common issues that show up in production equipment across every major basin.

Let’s explore the top five challenges that impact production equipment, from sand erosion to poor data analysis and more. We’ll break down why these challenges occur—and what you can do to avoid them to keep production running smoothly. 

Challenge 1: Separator inefficiencies and poor phase separation

Sand separators play an important role in stabilizing flow and removing unwanted solids and liquids from the stream. When they don’t perform well, you’ll quickly see issues like fluid carryover into downstream equipment and sand bypassing separators. This leads to accelerated erosion of production equipment, increasing the need for maintenance and damage control. You may even see washouts downstream as a result of untreated sand and high-velocity flow.

The root cause of these types of issues is related to using equipment that no longer matches the actual well conditions. Separator inefficiencies and poor phase separation can be due to incorrect vessel sizing, outdated equipment, higher sand load than expected, and variable flow profiles.

The solution? A fit-for-purpose approach using a leading sand management tool like the Sahara Advanced Sand Cyclone. The Sahara is designed to remove 97%+ sand from the well stream, which means that virtually no sand enters the production facility. The equipment is customized based on the range of flow rates for oil, water, and gas, varying wellhead pressures, sand particle size, and expected sand volumes. This means it’s highly efficient and reliable, no matter the well conditions.

Challenge 2: Facility bottlenecks that limit production

Rising backpressure, inability to tie into new wells, and production plateauing—bottlenecks often surface as subtle but costly symptoms. When they are not addressed, they increase costs, reduce facility uptime, and limit economic potential. Why do bottlenecks happen? It’s often as a result of a mismatch between the equipment and what the wells are producing. 

Resolving production facility bottlenecks involves an engineering-based approach that includes a facility flowpath audit and right-sizing or replacing critical equipment. High efficiency sand separators like the Sahara Advanced Sand Cyclone used upstream of the facility can reduce bottlenecks in addition to protecting the equipment from solids overload and premature erosion.

Adding automation to stabilize production and reduce manual intervention is another option, such as with eFlowback technology. This highly engineered automated solution brings together industry-leading sand separation technology with automation, measurement systems, and cloud-based software.

Challenge 3: Sand erosion and damage to production equipment 

Sand is arguably the most destructive force in a production facility. When it isn’t removed, it leads to washed chokes, eroded valves, and plugged lines that require frequent maintenance and causes safety risks.

As we know, sand gets through to the facility as a result of sand separator failure and low-efficiency separators. Fine particle sizes of 50 microns and below are often too small for traditional sand separators to capture. 

After the initial flowback stage, smaller volumes of sand are still being produced. The Sahara Facility Cyclone is a good solution for production facilities that are connected to multiple wells. It can handle combined flow rates from multiple fields, efficiently managing produced solids. The Sahara Facility Cyclone dramatically reduces sand erosion and extends the life of production equipment. 

Challenge 4: Limited visibility and inconsistent production data

Reliable production data is a cornerstone of efficient operations, but many facilities rely on manual processes or incomplete information. If you have limited insight into well behavior and sand management, how can you deliver optimal performance? Data gaps can lead to poor decision making, safety and environmental risks, and equipment failures.

There are multiple solutions to this problem. EnerCorp’s SmartSahara, integrated with Rocsole’s leading SoliDetect technology, provides continuous, real-time sand quantification so operators can completely eliminate guesswork and manual sand quantification. eFlowback is another option, which enables operators to monitor flows, pressures, and sand volumes remotely. Plus, EnerCorp now offers LiquidDetect, which enables advanced detection of fluid behavior to improve decision-making and reduce unplanned events. Together, these systems enhance data accuracy and improve sand measurement reliability.

Challenge 5: Long lead times and limited access to custom fabrication

In today’s market, operators face major hurdles getting the production equipment they need. Generic production equipment, while readily available, results in poor performance. If operators want access to custom fabrication, they may be dealing with long timelines and a lack of engineering support. It can be difficult to source high-quality builds that meet all operational requirements.
It’s important to work with production equipment fabricators that are vertically integrated. EnerCorp not only designs and engineers production equipment, but also uses that same equipment in the field. This provides our team with a large dataset that we can use to further improve and enhance our solutions. We offer custom-fit equipment for production conditions, matching real flow rates, pressures, GOR, water cut, and sand load — never using one-size-fits-all vessels.