While controllers for VSD-driven pumping units have the capability today to make manually programmed intra-stroke speed changes, they do not autonomously make these decisions. This work will describe a new control algorithm that autonomously chooses polished rod velocity profiles to maximize efficiency and production while protecting pumping units and rods from overloads. The algorithm uses surface and downhole cards from the earlier stroke, generating a new polished rod velocity profile for the following stroke.
In 2014, Hess initiated a project to manufacture 1-inch slim hole sucker rod couplings with a Cu15Ni8Sn high strength spinodal alloy, which provides higher toughness and corrosion resistance compared to other bronze alloys.
The couplings significantly reduce wear in deviated sections of unconventional wells. Hess’s pilot program includes ten wells and will be extended to sixty wells.
Once horizontal wells expend their phase of natural flow and an artificial lift system is required, they are well known to have production challenges associated with downhole pump gas interference and solids issues. Gas lift is often implemented as a transitional artificial lift solution since it is solids-tolerant, it can handle high decline rates and it can manage sluggy flow conditions inherent to horizontal wells.
A tried and true method of reducing gas interference in rod pumps is to set the pump in a position below all the perforations. The liquid and gas separate with the liquid dropping down to the pump intake and the gas rising in the casing-tubing annulus. This is not possible in today’s horizontally completed wells where the preferred pump placement is in the vertical section. In 2000 and an update in 2001 Benny Williams with Harbison Fischer presented papers regarding the then new Harbison-Fischer Variable Slippage Pump® (VSP®) patent #6,273,690 .
When a hole in the tubing, HIT, is suspected, then confirm the HIT with a pressure test. If no fluid is produced to the surface, then the test is performed by shutting down the well and pumping clean treated water into the tubing. The tubing is usually pressured up to 500 psi(g) and the pressure is held for a time period. If a hole is present, then the tubing pressure will quickly leak off. A collar leak can take much longer time to leak off.
This paper will discuss well applicability for gas lift installations, including identifying the best candidates for lift conversion, reasons for converting including benefits in a capital constrained environment. We’ll discuss GOR, deviated wells, solids handling, typical production rates, while comparing to other popular lift types’ efficiency and range.
Achieving consistent, sustained run life with electrical submersible pumps in the unconventional play of the Permian Basin can be difficult due to a variety of harsh well conditions.
The addition of a sliding sleeve door (SSD) to the tubing string, installed between the deepest gas lift mandrel and the annular packer, will allow the deployment of a wireline-set jet pump. The backup jet pump provides a valuable and cost-effective alternative in several potential scenarios: when unloading fracking fluids before beginning gas-lift production, when restoring production after an unpredicted shutdown of the gas-lift compression system, and when the producing water cut becomes higher than expected.
This presentation will provide information about the operational advantages and disadvantages of continuous rods. By removing the pins and couplings in a deviated well, side loading is distributed across a larger area reducing the severity of wear on the rods and the tubing. The types of continuous rods will be reviewed and operational data presented to assist others in evaluating their potential use of continuous rods.
RFG Petro Systems’ provides custom wireless and digital serial number tags for use within the well-bore infor and attached to the rod string components to assign its recorded quality control system data (batch mation, pressures, times, temperatures, manufacturing date/conditions) and logistics of the product from creation to end-of-life.
Murphy is currently operating 500 beam pumped wells in the unconventional Eagle Ford Shale play in South Texas. There are numerous challenges to beam pumping operations in the Eagle Ford, which included paraffin, corrosion, solids, deviated wellbores, slug flow, and foamy gassy fluid.
Murphy is currently operating 500 beam pumped wells in the unconventional Eagle Ford Shale play in South Texas. There are numerous challenges to beam pumping operations in the Eagle Ford, which included paraffin, corrosion, solids, deviated wellbores, slug flow, and foamy gassy fluid.
Downhole dynamometer cards can be generated by predictive and diagnostic wave computer programs. Those generated by the diagnostic program are best for trouble shooting as they are calculated from a measured surface card. Several aspects of the bottom cards are presented in discussed in this paper some of which are well known and used and some which are less recognized.
Metal to metal contact shortens the run life of both tubing, steel and fiberglass sucker rods. Using sacrificial rod guides can extend this life at the expense of increased side and axial loading enhanced by Coulomb friction effects. The problem is not limited to directional and horizontal wells. Just how crooked are our vertical wells? Simple inclination surveys insufficiently describe the wellbore path drilled. Knowledge of failure history, inclination and azimuth of wellbore path, plus access to a rod
We will show in multiple cases studies the effect of relieving back pressure on a oil well has in relationship to the producing bottom hole pressure, pump efficiency and over all economics of the well.
Gassy low pressure stratified reservoirs require special jet pump well completion and equipment selection considerations. These reservoirs often experience a 50% reservoir pressure decline within the first 14 months of production but can continue to produce for many years below the saturation pressure. Jet pumps can be installed in wells in many ways.
Field case studies for the patented Sand Flush Plunger™ (patent #8,535,024) have been performed at the Hwy 80 field operated by Pioneer Natural Resources. Pump repair and well conditions data was collected from the pump and well tracker systems used by the service providers of the field.
Depressed oil prices drive producers to reduce operating expenses and maximize profit margins. Some of these expenses are necessary for day-to-day operations, and are dictated by vendor pricing. Others are a function of the operator’s activity, and can be controlled within certain limits. Workover costs are a prime example of these “controllable” expenses. That being said, well failure control programs are essential to maximizing profits and limiting expenses.
The concept of Pump Stroke Optimization was introduced in September 2015 at the ALRDC Sucker Rod Pumping Workshop. Significant benefits to the sucker rod pumping system are obtained by preferentially slowing the downstroke (when pump capacity exceeds a wells productivity), while keeping a fast upstroke. These benefits are: Less pump slippage, less gas interference, and higher pump fillage, which results in less strokes per day for the same production, which results in less downhole wear.
A discussion on different types of corrosion and wear (and their associated mechanisms) will be followed by an overview of commercially available mitigation techniques including their practical field applications downhole.
Hannah Mitchell and Lee Coggins Chesapeake Energy
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).
Hannah Mitchell and Lee Coggins Chesapeake Energy
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).
Paul Bommer, A.L. Podio and Grayson Carroll University of Texas at Austin
During the down stroke the plunger in a rod pump must fall through a barrel that is filled with fluid. The plunger will establish a free fall velocity that is determined by the forces resisting downward motion. The free fall of the plunger may not be large enough to correspond to the actual velocity necessary to match the pumping speed set by the pumping unit. In this case the plunger must be pushed into the barrel by a compressive force in order to match the pumping velocity.
Omar Al Assad, Justin Barton, Rogier Blom, Ravi YB, Mahalakshmi SB GE Global Research Gary Hughes, Eric Oestrich, Peter Westerkamp and Craig Foster GE Lufkin Automation
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.
Pump spacing on fiberglass sucker rods is very important to the performance of the well and fiberglass rods. As gas becomes more of a problem in pumps, the gas compression ratio is even more important. Edge Production Equipment has developed a chart for pump spacing that will help space wells more efficiently and increase the gas compression ratio.