Early Lift Automation Finds Its Footing

Documented ExxonMobil and SPE 219528 cases highlight early lift automation gains while broader adoption remains gradual

5 Dec 2025

Artificial lift automation is shedding its experimental aura. After years of talk, a small but growing set of field results in North America is giving engineers something firmer to hold on to.

ExxonMobil is among the closest watchers. The company has used machine learning to steady gas lift injection and catch early signs of performance drift. Those tweaks have moved its teams from reactive fixes to more predictable adjustments shaped by real data. Another marker comes from an SPE paper out of the Permian Basin that tracked similar work on electric submersible pumps. It reported longer and calmer run times when the model aligned with well conditions. The takeaway is modest but meaningful: automation shines in narrow lanes, not across the whole field.

Even so, adoption is slow. Most efforts remain pilots or small clusters of wells. Operators want more proof across a wider mix of reservoirs before committing to broad, connected networks. For now, the pattern is cautious. Test a single well, study the gains, then think about scaling.

Service companies are trying to push things along. Baker Hughes and SLB keep tuning software that forecasts pump failures and sharpens lift performance. But these systems often live on handpicked assets where operators can vet reliability and see if the automated nudges genuinely shape better decisions.

Engineers still warn against overconfidence. Models can miss quiet reservoir signals or push equipment harder than planned. Worries about cybersecurity and patchy data also influence rollout plans. None of these hurdles stop progress, but each one argues for human oversight and routine checks before handing over more control.

For now, artificial lift automation is advancing in careful steps. As more reviewed evidence arrives, today’s experimenters will define the boundaries and expectations that shape tomorrow’s wider use.