Artificial Lift

Variable Speed Drives (VSDs) are a popular rod lift control system for operators that are willing to pay a premium for the promise that they can squeeze every last drop from a producing formation. However, initial results from the Eagle Ford suggest that VSDs may not be worth the additional expense when compared to the performance of their less complex cousin, the Pump-Off Controller (POC).

 Unplanned rod lift system outages often lead to long and costly repairs in addition to direct production loss. Leveraging design knowledge of the rod lift system combined with real-time condition monitoring represents a promising avenue to mitigate this problem. This study will demonstrate an application of advanced monitoring and diagnostic analytics on data from vibration, strain, current and voltage sensors installed in critical locations of a beam pumping unit.

This paper will cover common problems and misunderstandings that lead to sucker rod pumped well failures and some of the solutions to avoid failures and optimize the sucker rod pump system.The mechanics of the sucker rod pump design and modifications to improve performance in harsh well environments and failure data collection and performance measurement will also be examined.

This paper will focus primarily on damage to sucker rod pumps and other parts of the sucker rod pumping system due to common mistakes in operation procedures and operating conditions. A review of actual damaged materials and the operating parameters leading to the root cause of the failures will be presented as well as the solutions that were implemented to solve the problems.