Download Papers

This paper builds upon last year's presentation, which featured a case study showcasing the application of gas handling technology in the Midland Basin. With over 200 installations in the Permian Basin, this document expands on the insights gained from various applications, providing additional data that reinforces the operational principles and results presented in the previous year. In this...

This paper introduces a technology for handling solids above the discharge of the ESP pump that increases the run time of the well and prevents premature failure due to plugging or damage to the pump parts thus contributing to the reduction of carbon emissions and environmental impact. Additionally, the new technology was engineered to allow fluid injection through the tubing and its components...

Nowadays, concerns about global warming and the rise in greenhouse gasses grow each day. A major contributor to this is the hydrocarbon methane (CH₄) in natural gas. These concerns have caused government agencies, such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency, to require companies to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions their oil wells release into the atmosphere. One such...

Pumping chemicals on wells with high fluid levels has always been a struggle on its efficiency as well as to reach the bottom of the well. This paper will go over the details of the downhole chemical technology to deliver chemical chemicals by microencapulating the chemical components into a chemical screen that is placed at the bottom of the tubing. This technology was installed in Gaines County...

A discussion of Rod Lift VSD control parameters, setup, and configuration for optimal operation under varying operating conditions History shows that many operators utilize only the most basic control parameters when setting up VSDs for rod lift applications. This paper will discuss the VSD and Rod Pump Control parameters necessary for safe, reliable, and efficient rod lift control.    

The most common form of artificial lift is sucker-rod pumping. One of the main elements of rod lift system design is the selection of a downhole pump. This study examines the various factors that affect the selection and design of downhole rod pumps. This paper will examine the following five downhole pump components: barrel, plunger, cages, balls and seats, and seating assembly. Understanding the...

The Greater Elk Hills Area boasts a substantial continuous rod population, introduced to the field due to loading requirements and casing restrictions. However, the existing continuous rod population is now comprised of older worn rod strings, with many of these strings exceeding ten years of service. These rod strings commonly require sections of rod replaced when they are pulled during service...

With the use of mechanical long stroke units having stroke lengths of 291–416 inches, converting to rod lift is being done sooner. Rates of 400-900 bfpd are being achieved in wells as deep as 10000 feet TVD. This helps to eliminate running multiple ESPs to draw down a well into the 400-500 bfpd range. This presentation will discuss the history and demand of long stroke pumping units in the market...

The I-Plunger is designed for Gas Wells and is an Instrumented Plunger that records pressure, temperature, depth, and plunger velocity. Information from the tool is collected and graphically presented for detailed analysis as well as a quick reference guide. Typical information that can be gathered from the I-Plunger is useful in determining plunger lift optimization, dual-stage plunger setup...

Production engineers struggle every day with decisions on tubing size and flow path selection for their wells. This could be regarding what applications will be most appropriate over the life of the well, what timing would be appropriate for tubing install and/or flow path transition (annular to tubing flow), or what size would be appropriate for the remainder of the well’s life after a workover...

Gas lift is long known to be an effective and versatile form of artificial lift and is widely used in oil and gas production. Compressors are a vital part of the gas lift process and are present in large numbers in the oil and gas industry. The design of these compressors has for many years allowed for the release of hydrocarbons into the environment. Concerns over the environmental impact of...

Standing and Traveling valves can be considered as the heart of a rod pump. An unrestricted fluid flow through the standing and traveling valves improve the pump efficiency and pump life. An unrestrained fluid flow through the traveling valve helps the sucker rod string to fall freely, which reduces rod buckling and eliminates unnecessary load on the surface unit. And in the case of the standing...

At the well or through the cloud from any location in the world an operator can troubleshoot and analyze the performance of any well. Fluid level and dynamometer test can be acquired and used to analyze challenging sucker rod lifted wells without requiring the operator to be present at the wellsite. The operator can automatically acquire precisely time stamped high frequency data using an...

Modern controllers are required to estimate various parameters from field data to provide effective diagnostics and control of sucker rod pumping installations. In some cases, however, the data are not only corrupted by noise but also contain outliers that are in gross disagreement with the postulated model. If included, outliers can distort the fitting process so dramatically that the fitted...

Incomplete fillage conditions where the downhole pump does not completely fill up with incompressible liquid has been widely accepted to have detrimental effects on pumping efficiency and moreover the equipment longevity in sucker rod pumping applications. Methods of synchronizing the pump displacement to the wells inflow and thus reducing incomplete fillage has been of keen interest to the...

The percentage of oil wells using 3-Phase Electric motors controlled by Variable Frequency Drives is continuing to grow.  As new wells come online they are also added to existing Utility feeder lines.     As a result of increasing non-linear load density, utilities are gradually turning to stricter enforcement protocols.  New utility interconnect permits may be withheld until the utility is...

The Permian Basin began production in the 1920’s.  With that production of hydrocarbons has come the production of a lot of water.  In 2002 it was estimated that the production of water was 400 million gallons per day and that volume has increased steadily.  In addition, to water production, many reservoirs have reached an age where the paraffin and asphaltene content of the produced crude has...

Many oil and gas companies rely on natural intelligence, resident knowledge, and rules-based logic to optimize production. This is especially true for fields where electric submersible pumps (ESPs) make up a considerable proportion of production on artificial lift. The nature of ESP artificial lift systems makes them well suited for greater remote monitoring, enhanced automation, and...

Extended-reach horizontal well geometries and higher hydraulic fracturing stage counts have led to increased well productivities in tight oil plays across the Lower-48. However, lateral lengths in excess of 10,000 feet with complex fracture networks can also introduce more dynamic behavior and even more severe production declines over time, often exacerbated by tight oil formations that produce...

The ability to have host software autonomously optimize control artificially lifted oil and gas wells has obvious upsides for operators looking for productivity gains both for their workforce and their assets. In recent years, many strides have been made to develop such algorithms to allow operators to maximize performance on their artificially lifted assets. One of the most significant challenges...

Effectively managing fluid production with high sand content poses a common challenge in various forms of artificial lift, whether it be addressing formation fines or handling proppant flowback from hydraulically fractured zones. This challenge is particularly pronounced in reciprocating rod lift applications, where the entry of sand and solids into the barrel/plunger interface emerges as a...

Initial lifting new wells with high pressure gas lift valves when BHP and PI are at the highest to achieve a deeper point of injection, thus higher fluid rates. Converting to normal pressure gas lift when production rates are lower utilizing the balance-ported valve. Balance Ported Valve is a gas-lift valve that allows full, available gas injection pressure to be used for the unloading and...

QSO Inc. has developed a product to provide a unique and simple solution to problematic or inefficient plunger lift systems installed in horizontal wells in the USA. QSO’s Patented* Horizontal Check Valve (HCV) has removed the limitations that once burdened the industry in not being able to hold fluid properly in a horizontal well. Our HCV has proven to hold fluid in wells where conventional check...

This paper will cover sucker rod pump barrels that are available in the industry for downhole sucker rod pumps, as well as tapered barrels for pressure balance on the upstroke.  For barrels it will cover their traditional uses, interesting exceptions to API 11AR recommendations, barrel materials and their applications, and tubing anchor effects.  The theory behind a new tapered barrel pump will be...

To deal with gas and sand problems in their conversion and rod pump wells an operator company in south Texas started introducing a combined technology of two-stages filtration with a modified poor boy gas separator obtaining excellent results. This paper explains the technology used and shares the information used to design the tools and the results achieved in the first wells completed. The...