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The common beam and sucker rod pumping unit is old technology yet it continues to be part ofthe most popular artificial lift system in use today for several good reasons. A few of the more important are: It is a simple mechanical mechanism that is easily understood and therefore easy to keep in good repair. It is a highly efficient part of the beam and sucker rod artificial lift system. It can be very ruggedly built resulting in a long useful life.

The return to a university for graduate studies after an engineer has begun practice in the petroleum industry is discussed. Some
factors motivating advanced studies are given. Several general programs are outlined and described. Justification of the time and
effort required for study leading to a master's degree for both engineer and employer is considered. This presentation concludes that graduate studies are not desirable for many, perhaps even most practicing petroleum engineers; but some engineers gain professionally and personally from such studies.

It is important that oil wells be produced at their maximum permissible rate because of the greater income generated, lower lifting costs per barrel, quick return of investment, and the larger oil reserve of a top allowable well. It is the purpose of this paper to show a determination of the magnitude and cause of skin effect and a consideration of the factors in the Darcy Formula may be used to predict successfully the results of workover operations.

Production equipment failures in beam pumped wells are an everyday expense in the oil field. Minimizing repeated or unnecessary failures caused by improper design handling and metallurgy directly reduces the operating expense of any oil company or operator. As the industry downsizes its work force, innovative ways of maintaining or reducing well service costs are becoming more and more necessary. This paper presents a guide to various causes to common failures which are applicable in a variety of service conditions: sour/sweet, shallow/deep and high/low production volumes.

Results of work performed to determine the degree of cement sheath shattering that occurs during perforation indicate the application potential of lightweight "lead" cements as "perforating" cements. Four lightweight cement candidate blends were tested and compared to conventional, normal density, tail cement. A 7 in. OD, 23 lb/ft J-55 casing test fixture was used. The formation was simulated by a piece of tubing 10.75 in. OD by 0.188 in. wall. The 10 in. thin wall tubing is not a component of normal well completions; it served to act as a simulated formation to hold cement in place.

During the course of any acidizing treatment, a certain amount of iron is dissolved by action of the acid upon treating lines, equipment, downhole tubular goods and iron containing minerals present within the formation. Upon spending of the acid, this iron may precipitate as insoluble gelatinous ferric hydroxide. This precipitate is an effective plugging agent which damages permeability and restricts oil and gas production. In order to prevent iron precipitation, stabilizers are routinely added to the treating acid.

Deposition of gypsum is the source of some of the most severe production and water injection problems in certain areas. Considerable progress has been made recently in the field of gyp (CaSO4 * 2H2O) removal and prevention in oilfield applications. This paper shows the results of a comprehensive laboratory and field evaluation of various types of scale removal methods which may be classified as: 1) converters, 2) disintegrators and 3) solvents.

The younger Permian carbonates have been prolific producers over the years. The San Andres and Grayburg dolomites, which are productive in nearly all areas of West, Texas, are of particular note. Although traditional log analysis has been generally successful in these reservoirs, the presence of gypsum in many has created difficulties. Gypsum tends to result in overly optimistic porosity calculations and also tends to restrict permeability by plugging the pore throats.

Direct Liquid Phase Oxidation Processes (DLPOP's) are a group of processes that remove hydrogen sulfide (H2S) from gas streams by absorption in an alkaline aqueous solution. The absorbed H2S is converted to elemental sulfur through the action of a metal catalyst complex contained in the solution. These processes are very effective, being able to remove H2S to below the limits of detectability when required. They are almost totally selective for H2S, with respect to carbon dioxide (C02).

Hydrogen sulfide gas is encountered in various petroleum operations, from the drilling operation through to and including the refining process; therefore, we must be aware of its properties, its toxicity and how to circumvent employee exposure to the acidic gas.

The Harbison-Fischer patent-pending Sand-Pro

The first use of a through-tubing technique to selectively remove hard and inert scales in West Texas proved successful. The technique incorporates an abrasive jetting technology that uses two new coiled tubing tools and pumps specially manufactured particles through nozzles in a rotating head. The goal was to remove an inert scale, predominantly barium sulfate, from the production tubing in an old gas well in order to deploy tubing cutters as close to the packer as possible. The engineering and actual execution of this project are examined here.

Production tubing string failure and rod failure contribute significantly to the lifting cost of some wells produced by rod pumping and in some instances, may even be a determining factor in the decision to discontinue producing a well. This paper deals with the design, installation and field testing of a polyethylene liner for production strings in rod pumped wells.

Heated acids have been used extensively with excellent results as shown by field data and laboratory tests. A primary use of heated acids is to increase dissolution and reactivity in relatively cold formations for improved flow capacities in, for example, cold dolomites.

Whipstock plugs provide an essential tool for deviating from the primary hole direction to sidetrack an impenetrable object such as drill pipe or bit, or to initiate a planned hole deviation to complete a lateral or multilateral hole. The successful setting of whipstock plugs and the completion of the sidetrack operations can be very intricate, complicated by high slurry densities, high viscosities, and very low to very high bottom hole temperature extremes where costs escalate with each attempt.

High Density custom designed pull through polyethylene liner programs for new and existing steel pipelines started in Canada in the late 70"s. High pressure salt water injection steel pipeline buried 6 to 7 feet deep in Northwestern Alberta prompted a major manufacturer of HDPE pressure pipe to try custom sizing a thin wall liner pipe. Custom tooling first had to be programmed to the front of the pipe extruder at the plant to fit all the various steel sizes and wall thicknesses.

The use of various metal salts and metal chelates as crosslinking materials for guar gum and guar urn derivatives has been investigated under low temperature conditions (<2OO degrees F) . To determine the crosslinkers of highest efficiency, these crosslinkers were evaluated using the criteria of maximum crosslinked viscosity yield per pound of polymer employed, relative shear sensitivity of each crosslinker and projected ease of application for each crosslinked fluid system in the field.

Development of a 2000 horsepower fracturing pump unit has brought greater safety, more reliability, more sand pumping capacity, reduced manpower requirements, and shorter setup time to fracturing operations. The pump is a crankshaft type, powered by a 16-cylinder diesel engine, and driven through an eight speed transmission. For job control, the unit is provided with remote controls and a specialized pressure limiting system. The fluid end has been optimized for handling fluids with high sand concentrations.

A new high performance corrosion inhibitor was developed for oil and gas field batch treatment applications. The performance of the new corrosion inhibitor was enhanced by its superior dispersion properties. Laboratory corrosion inhibition and film coverage tests showed that new corrosion inhibitor provides better corrosion inhibition than conventional corrosion inhibitor. The new corrosion inhibitor exhibited improved partitioning into water phase due to its more stable dispersion in aqueous phase. The higher dispersibility is an indication of improved field performance.

A High-Performance Fracturing Fluid (HPF) has led to a step change in the completion process of the San-Andres reservoir in Andrews County, Texas. Recent development in fluid technology has resulted in the introduction of a unique fracturing fluid that is less damaging to the formation, has excellent proppant transportability, and requires no breakers. Despite very robust and stable rheological properties during pumping, HPF returns to its original viscosity shortly after closure with no internal breakers.

In the paper, we will give very specific examples of the use of intense quality control and also go into our evolution into the use of 35 lb/l 000 gal borate crosslink gels, as well as the very simple, straightforward polyemulsion system. We feel in both cases that the use of an aggressive proppant schedule, proper job design, and an aggressive flowback schedule has allowed a very successful stimulation program to be accomplished. We will give extensive results on pre- and post-fracture productivity, as well as economics

Fracture acidizing and hydraulic fracturing utilizing propping agents has been used successfully in the stimulation of oil and gas wells for over 40 years. A tremendous number of these acidizing and proppant fracturing treatments have been conducted In carbonate reservoirs in west Texas. It is the purpose of this paper to report a fairly extensive program to optimize stimulation results, primarily in the Cleat-fork, but also In other west Texas reservoirs.

High rate rod pumping continues to be an important artificial lift method in many fields around the world. Just what are the production limits and the loads for the largest rod pumping units? A comparison of the largest convention unit, air balanced unit, an improved geometry unit. and an ultra long stroke pumping system shows the potential production limits at various pumping depths. The key element in design is not to overload the sucker rods so that frequent fatigue failures occur. Also to prevent premature failures, do not overload the unit gear box and structure rating.

Beam installations using high slip motors (20 to 30 per cent range) can reduce gear box torques some 30 to 40 per cent over beam installation using conventional 8 per cent slip motors. In addition, high slip motors can reduce peak polish rod loads 10 to 15 per cent. These load reductions can mean a saving in capital expenditures plus a reduction in operating costs.