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Surface coatings are commonly used in many industries including oil and gas; with the aim of hardening the part surfaces to improve wear resistance without compromising the corrosion resistance -or even improve when applicable. Sucker rod pumps employ several parts with coated surfaces as well, including the pump barrels. Both standardized surface modifications and specialty applications for pump...

Since its’ introduction to the unconventional oil and gas realm in 2018, Single Point High Pressure Gas Lift (referred to as HPGL going forward) has emerged as one of the top artificial lift choices for operators in the Permian and Anadarko basins. It has become a proven technology with over 1,250 applications to date as more operators are choosing it as their primary form of artificial lift for...

A dual purpose design is presented in this paper to face high gas presence and sand production conditions in petroleum wells with an Electric Submersible Pump (ESP) system installed. The results of this design’s application in severely problematic wells, due to high gas and sand production, will confirm the importance of conditioning the fluid before it gets to the pump intake.

This engineered...

This case study has a completion with 2-7/8” tubing in 5-1/2” casing without a packer, with 8 IPO gas lift valves in conventional mandrels with an orifice as the last valve and a chemical screen below that. A grooved plunger was used in this well in combination with gas lift to reduce liquid fall back losses and provides a solid sealing interface between the liquid slug and the gas below it. The...

The use of martensitic alloys in sucker rod applications has several significant advantages over ferritic-pearlitic alloys. Processing differences in making the different microstructures will be discussed, along with the resulting property and performance differences. An evaluation of the guidelines for optimal strength in various corrosive environments will be provided. Studies on the fatigue...

Electric Submersible Pumps (ESPs) are severely affected by free gas entering the pump, which cause significant degradation in pump performance, due to gas locking conditions cause by bubbles blocking the fluid from passing through the impellers, resulting in frequent shutdowns and restarts, which increase the risk of early failure. This effect is even worst when a gas slug event, very common in...

A revolutionary packer-type gas separator was designed to improve gas separation efficiency downhole. A deep analysis of gas separation methods was done to better understand the nature of the process and to design a tool that could generate enhanced conditions for the gas separation phenomenon. During the research stages where data from Permian fields were analyzed to develop this new design of...

Horizontal wells are the largest capital investments made in the Permian and return on investment is essential. This project was developed to analyze the sustainability of gas lift as final form of artificial lift for unconventional horizontal wells. A pilot to run gas lift equipment deep into the lateral was developed, which involved meticulous candidate and downhole equipment selection. Two...

In a reciprocating rod lift application, production tubing failure due to metal-to-metal contact with sucker rod couplings is a common problem in the highly deviated sections of the tubing string. The coupling is forced to be the point of contact against the tubing wall, which causes high friction and excessive tubing wear during the reciprocating motion. This excessive tubing wear typically leads...

Data from fluid level, dynamometer, pressure, and motor power measurements were acquired by a standalone programmable monitoring system that uses internet and cellphone communication with the Cloud for remote monitoring of well performance. The system named Remote Asset Monitoring or RAM is described in detail in this paper that presents results from the tests that lasted several weeks, beginning...

Data from acoustic fluid level and surface pressure measurements were acquired by a standalone programmable monitoring system that uses internet and cellphone communication with the Cloud for remote monitoring of pressure transient well performance. The system named Remote Asset Monitoring or RAM is described in detail in this paper that presents results from tests that lasted several weeks...

Data from fluid level shots can be very valuable in optimizing the chemical treatment program. For example, selecting continuous treatment vs truck treatment, adjusting flush volumes on truck treated wells, ensuring slip-streams are open and adequately slipping, or raising the SN depth on wells that cannot be pumped down. Just because chemical is being introduced into the backside does not mean it...

Managing extensive Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP) operations and evaluating their performance can be a challenging task, especially in unconventional reservoirs. Varied operational environments, expansive geographical areas, large ESP populations, different declination patterns, diverse fluid properties and well designs and different service providers are some of the complications that...

Modern sucker rod pump operations rely on pump-off controller’s, surveillance dashboards, and human intervention to maximize production and pump performance. As a result, rod pump operations often suffer from high manual workload, limited diagnostics and dynamic well conditions. For wells fitted with pump-off controllers and variable speed drives, challenges remain around data gathering and...

One of the most misunderstood issues in sucker rod pumping is tubing back pressure. The great majority of wells that I have encountered in various fields have back pressure valves installed on the tubing side of a wellhead. However, a great many field personnel do not understand why back pressure is applied, how much to apply, and/or how it affects a well’s performance. This paper will discuss the...

The prevention and mitigation of paraffin and asphaltene deposition in oil and gas wells behaves differently depending on each well’s fluid chemistry and the thermodynamic production conditions. These variables combined make the chemical mitigation a challenging process, the target chemistry must be tested in well conditions and in representative samples to determine the optimum formulation and...

A new gas separation technology was released last year with the goal of creating a substantially increased volume capacity and therefore significantly improved separation quality through application of a process known as limited-entry. This process is more commonly applied to well fracturing and other stimulation procedures wherein the principle is applied to create an equal distribution of fluids...

Environmental concerns and increasing costs are creating a need for a polymer that will allow the use of a high salt, high hardness water in the making of a viscosified frac fluid. Any new polymer would also need to tick the boxes for cost, rheology, HS&E characteristics as well as breaking in the reservoir. Past development efforts have focused on improving organic-based polymers. A new approach...

Multiphase flow is found in various places both in nature and in practice, however, multiphase flow is prevalent in the petroleum production industry. This phenomenon brings about a major problem of pressure loss in piping systems and results in a loss in production. Multiphase flow has been studied for years however, with the increase in unconventional engineering methods, there is now a greater...

A Chemical Management Program is an integral part of an overall effort to reduce downhole and surface failures.  The success of a Chemical Management Program depends upon the Operator and the Chemical vendor understanding the expectations and responsibilities assigned to each party.  This paper identifies the critical tasks associated with a successful program to aid in clarification as to which...

In the last 10-15 years, the US has seen a remarkable surge in the production of oil and natural gas as the industry learned how to properly complete and produce previously non-productive formations. With this increased hydrocarbon production, we have also seen an increase in the amount of water that is produced and must be managed. The large volumes of water that must be gathered, managed and...

Rod pumping unconventional wells can be challenging due to increased side loading conditions thru the curve section of the wellbore.  Likewise, ‘S’ shaped wells and unintentional dog legs present a similar problem with increased failure rates.  All of these conditions lead to higher side loading resulting in increased friction and wear and a corresponding decrease in Mean Time Between Failures...

The issues of leakage with respect to the clearance between the pump plunger outer diameter (OD) and the pump barrel inner diameter (ID) and other operation conditions have been revisited in this paper using viscoelastic models. Both Poiseuille flow rate due to the pressure difference and Couette flow rate due to the plunger motion have been considered. The purpose of this study is to better...

This paper proposes a new method to deal with sand and chemical problems in the ESP. The protection system consists of 1) ESP sand separation system that works in two stages assuring the best sand separation efficiency. The first separation stage is composed of a V-wire geometry screened designed based on production. The second stage is a centrifugal system formed by a sand cutting resistance...

The advent of low-cost IoT systems powered by AI/ML Algorithms provides new production optimization tools available at the well site to achieve the digital transformation in the onshore oil and gas business. The unique capability of well diagnostic at the edge opens new opportunities from artificial lift to production optimization. The goal is to improve overall efficiency by reducing failures...