Artificial Lift

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 barrels are readily available in market for different well conditions, including extreme well solids and H2S and CO2 service.

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 their unconventional assets.

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 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 liquid rate declined drastically after operating the well on the gas lift at 600 MCFD rate and 1050 psig injection pressure for eight months.

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 performance of martensitic and ferritic steels will be presented.
 

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.

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 gas separator, the engineering team found three main challenges in downhole gas separation.

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 horizontal wells were selected, and deep gas lift was installed far into the lateral. 

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 to a hole in the tubing wall, resulting in high workover costs for the producer.

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 with well pump down, just after new pump installation and continuing during normal production operation.