Artificial Lift

As fluctuations in oil price continue, the industry has changed and is demanding improvements from each method of artificial lift. Required flow rates are increasing due to the longer laterals of new horizontal wells being added to inventory. Rod Lift is not immune and is being asked to enter the artificial lift cycle earlier and support the pumping of wellbores with added complexities due to...

In 2017 and 2018 Oxy EOR conducted a series of RCFA schools. As part of these schools, information was gathered on the range of equipment replacement for failure types. In 2018, a cross functional team of experienced stakeholders vetted this information and compiled a list of equipment replacement guidelines. This paper will share these guidelines. 

Typically, the Petroleum Industry maintains operational ideas that were developed years ago.  These operational ideas may still have merit, but some improvements should be considered.  Sucker rod guides are an example of such practices.  Most production companies continue to use rod guide material that was introduced at the conception of the recognition of the need for sucker rod guides.  This...

In 2014 Oxy EOR had lost confidence in the accuracy of Fluid Levels in CO2 wells and was not shooting them. Echometer and Oxy collaborated to identify the root cause of the fluid level inaccuracy and resolve the issue through improved procedures and educating personnel. Today trusted fluid level information adds value by improved operational decision making. 

Oxy Resources established the Texas Delaware Team in April 2013 when ~200 wells were purchased in the area of Pecos, Texas.  These primarily vertical wells produce from various commingled Delaware intervals located at 8,000’ to 12,000’ deep. The nature and deviation of these wells have made rod pumping them challenging and failure frequencies have been as high as 1.5 failures/year. Many lessons...

In today’s world it can be challenging to locate the downhole well location immediately below the surface location in secondary and tertiary projects. There are several factors that must be considered when picking the surface location that will maximize value including 1) increases cost of building a location and drilling, 2) increases cost of artificial lift and operations, and 3) production rate...

Much work has been done on the operation of beam pump pump-off controllers, but the downtime is normally a simple timer and the optimum downtime is usually set by rule of thumb or trial and error. This paper uses a complete well model coupled with a transient reservoir  model to show that the optimum downtime in terms of total energy used per produced barrel of oil is equal to the wellbore storage...

To increase recovery rates – the greatest challenge facing the industry – operators must not only look to step-change technologies, but improvements to existing technology. Even incremental increases in recovery rates can impact economics when multiplied across numerous wells. For example, approximately two-thirds of onshore wells use beam operated pump jacks with reciprocating rod pumps. Our...

The performance of Harbison-Fischer’s patented Sand Flush Plunger (SFP) was assessed relative to the average runtime for standard API plungers in the HWY 80 field, operated by Pioneer Natural Resources (PNR). The field case study captured information from Harbison-Fischer’s pump-tracker for 5,283 wells and 32,804 workover records dating back to 1989. As of the record date, 1,934 different wells...

In some of today’s unconventional wells, sucker rod pumping systems are facing challenges related to excessive wear, affecting production and increasing operational costs. One of the reoccurring damages in a sucker rod pumped well occurs near the kick-off point in a deviated well between the coupling and the tubing or between the sucker rod and the tubing; the metal-to-metal contact causes hole-in...