Sara Million and Willians Padilla
Weatherford
The most common well profiles for reciprocating rod lift applications are deviated and highly corrosive wells. Many newly drilled horizontal wells exhibit moderate to severe deviations which require the pump to be set in the curve to produce intended target zones; resulting in a challenging environment for rod lift systems to successfully operate. These wells tend to be accompanied by corrosion, furthering the possibility of premature failures on all downhole equipment: rods, tubing, and pumps.
Several companies have worked to find a solution to these problems, with one simple product seemingly leading the way, continuous rod. In many wells such as these, continuous rod has proven time and time again that it can improve run life, reduce failures, and optimize production. Continuous rod has recently gone one step further by adding an epoxy coating to resolve the corrosion problem. Several wells have been field trialed and have shown great improvements. This paper will provide an overview of the technology and the field improvements observed up to now.