Peter Westerkamp and Dean Calder, Lufkin Industries
A complete rod lift system design requires sizing a downhole pump, stroke length and pumping speed to match a production target, selecting a rod string taper that survives cyclic loading by checking each taper against Modified Goodman fatigue limits, and selecting a surface unit whose peak torque, structural load and counterbalance design limits can carry the resulting load. These tasks traditionally belonged to a small population of rod pump specialists; however, with the exit of industry experts over recent years, the number of rod-pumped wells that demand a sound design outpaces the number of individuals qualified to produce one.
Several scenarios often occur: a producer must determine the viability of a well design supplied by an external source; an engineer new to rod lift may not possess the skills and experience required to evaluate the presented design data; or a specialist prefers to see every parameter exposed in detail.
Offering automated design software addresses these needs; additionally, offering this software as a service (SaaS) provides further benefits. The SaaS product features a new, modern, user-friendly interface. Users can access the software from any machine with internet access, receive frequent, automated software updates with no local installation, and if so, required subscribe only for the time it is needed. Planned shared surface unit, rod and well design databases and folders will let teams and partners work from common data.
A design approach will be presented that proposes a five-step sequence prioritizing production target, well geometry, preliminary design generation, refinement, and surface equipment and downhole completion selection, complete with automated multiple case generation. The sequence ultimately produces several validated solutions, from which the user may choose the preferred option to match available equipment or personal or company design preferences.
Three levels of access serve each type of user: Design Check validates existing designs, Automate generates a complete design with minimal user input, and Expert gives super users full access to every parameter.
The presentation will provide an overview of the software's capabilities at all levels of access, including the full design report covering production data, rod loads, a dynamometer summary, Goodman pass/fail by taper, and surface unit torque, complete with a counterbalance solution. The presentation will also introduce the software's new, modern, user-friendly look and explain how cloud-executed and desktop calculations are held to a tested parity requirement, so a design's result doesn't change based on its delivery method.