Artificial Lift

How and where ground wires are connected determines the runtime and successful withstanding of switching and lightning surges. This is extremely evident with lightning protection of electric submersible pumps (ESP).  Electric surge suppressors on the same ground wire can and will interact bidirectionally in a lightning storm. Instances of ESP failures due to improperly installed surge suppression...

Slippage is required for lubricating the plunger/barrel within beam pumping systems. Increasing pump clearance increases the amount of slippage, which may lead to inefficient operations. Operators could run their field more efficiently through decreasing failure rate and increased electrical cost savings by calculating the optimum design using the Patterson Slippage equation for individual well...

In 2016, a recommendation was made in EOR to begin utilizing Grade “C” when replacing rods in San Andres wells or wells less than 5,000’ deep. The advantage of the Grade “C” rods believed to be better corrosion resistance, tubing leak reduction, and lower material cost. It was also recommended that “T” coupling be considered as an alternative to Spray Metal (“SM”) couplings as they are softer and...

Evolution of annular gas lift candidates and early results of application in the Delaware Basin. 

There are a large number of unconventional wells coming on line every month in the Permian Basin.  Most of these wells will have high bottom-hole pressures and initially flow on their own. However, after the initial flow back phase, pressures and rates decline and the well will begin to liquid load. At this point some type of artificial lift choice needs to be considered. This paper will lay out...

This paper will discuss the two API pump designations the rod pump and the tubing pump. The rod pump is occasionally referred to as an insert pump and has three variations; stationary barrel top anchor, stationary barrel bottom anchor, and traveling barrel bottom anchor. Available modifications that are not covered under API but are commonly used to improve run time or efficiency will be discussed...

Tubing leaks have historically accounted for nearly half of the failures in the Hess Bakken wells. The root cause of these leaks is coupling on tubing wear; the non-metallic guides wear out, which results in spray metal couplings contacting the production tubing. To address this problem, the company installed ToughMet® 3 TS95 sucker rod couplings in over 650 wells, reducing the failure rate in the...

Gas lift is becoming a popular form of artificial lift in the Permian Basin for long horizontal wells that make high gas rates. Unfortunately the decline curves on most horizontal wells are not ideal. As the rates and pressure quickly drop gas lift starts to become inefficient and we are forced to make artificial lift changes in order to preserve base production. Rod pumps have always been the end...

The most common form of artificial lift is sucker-rod pumping.  One of the main elements of rod lift system design is the selection of a downhole pump.  This study examines the various factors that affect the selection and design of downhole rod pumps. Downhole rod pumps are made up of five main components: barrel, plunger, balls and seats, seating assembly, and valve rod or pull tube....

Automation of rod pumping systems has been a part of the oil and gas industry for over 65 years.  Starting with time clocks in the 1950s, the invention of the pump-off controller in the 60s, and variable speed drives in the early 2000s, the amount of technology available to both control and analyze the system has increased and improved drastically. Several of the driving factors to automate...