From Routes to Exceptions: Automating Plunger Lift Well Management
Large-scale plunger lift operations demand surveillance methods that can balance proactive optimization with targeted field intervention. To replace route-based monitoring, Occidental Petroleum developed an integrated closed loop control program as well as SCADA based exceptions for its 2,000+ plunger lift wells. Plunger Lift Artificial Intelligence (PLAI) delivers proactive plunger lift optimization by blending real time well data with machine learning and decision logic, enabling timely alerts and automated setpoint updates.
Plunger Lift Stages Separation and Virtual Flow Metering Generation Through Machine-Learning
The plunger lift process can be divided into four distinct cycles: buildup, upstroke, after flow, and liquid discharge. One key parameter that can be measured for optimizing oil production is the total gas flow rate produced during the liquid discharge cycle. Typically, the only known parameters are the controller’s on and off time, so post-processing is required to identify the liquid discharge period and quantify the observed flow rate.
Enhancing Downhole Spring Reliability with an Interlocking Design: Reducing Failures, Replacement Costs, and Non-Productive Time in Plunger-Lift Wells
Downhole springs are one of the few components in a plunger-lift system that operators expect to run for a year or longer without intervention—making reliability, durability, and serviceability essential. Industry experience shows that the most common failures occur at threaded connections near the cage and neck, often leading to full-assembly replacement and unnecessary expense. This paper introduces an interlocking downhole-spring design engineered to eliminate these weak points, extend run life, and significantly reduce replacement costs.
Top Ten Challenges In Jet Lift Production Operations and the Solutions Successfully Implemented in Producing Oil Wells In the South Texas Region
Jet lift systems have earned a strong reputation as an effective artificial lift method for unconventional oil well production across the most prolific hydrocarbon-producing regions in the United States of America. In prolific reservoirs such as the Permian Basin, Eagle Ford, and Bakken, operators have successfully utilized jet lift as the primary lifting method for challenging oil wells. Additionally, operators in the Eagle Ford Basin have consistently employed jet lift as the main production technique for their wells.
Surfactant-Assisted Frac-Hit Production Recovery in Gas-Lift Wells
Frac hits in unconventional developments often cause persistent liquid loading, increased flowing pressures, and reduced lift efficiency in offset gas-lift wells. These effects are largely driven by trapped frac fluids, elevated water saturation, and unstable multiphase flow, all of which delay production recovery. This paper evaluates the use of targeted surfactant treatments to accelerate post–frac-hit cleanup and restore gas-lift performance.
Addressing Gas Lift Challenges With Innovative surface-Controlled Technology
Oil and gas operators increasingly face difficulties optimizing production from wells characterized by variable flow regimes and dynamic pressure conditions. Conventional gas lift systems are often unable to respond effectively to these fluctuations, resulting in inefficiencies, elevated downtime, and reduced hydrocarbon recovery. These challenges are compounded by the need to control costs, particularly in marginal or complex well environments.
Insights into Intermittent Gas Lift: Lessons from Field Experiments and Operations
Intermittent gas lift (IGL) is emerging as a key late-life artificial lift method for the growing number of aging horizontal wells in the Permian Basin. With more than 20,000 wells on continuous gas lift, operators face challenges in converting to IGL and operating it effectively. This study synthesizes lessons gathered from controlled IGL experiments at the Texas Tech Oilfield Technology Center (OTC) and multiple Permian Basin wells.
High Pressure Gas Lift (HPGL) Upper Completion Design Strategy
This paper explores the High Pressure Gas Lift Upper Completion Design Strategy in the Delaware Basin, focusing on optimizing gas lift design for a life-of-well approach that ensures optimal economics. Various design options are assessed to balance cost savings, reliability, and operational efficiency. A comparative analysis of different gas lift designs, including Single Point (no GLV), Side-Pocket Mandrels (SPM), High Pressure GLV, Hybrid Gas Lift Designs, Traditional GLV with 10k Check Valve, and Traditional GLV with Burst Disc, was conducted.
Field Evidence of Check-Valve Durability Under API Kickoff Gas-Lift Operating Conditions
The standard API kickoff procedure for gas-lift wells relies on stepwise injection of lift gas into the casing to displace kill fluid from the annulus and lighten the tubing fluid column. In practice, however, solids present in completion fluids can cause severe erosion of check valves—an issue not adequately represented in current API qualification tests, which require flow testing only with clean water.
Clarifying the Crystal Ball: A New Nodal-Modeling Workflow to Predict Production from Different Lift Strategies
OBJECTIVES/SCOPE:
The presentation will review a new modeling workflow utilizing dynamic, iterative nodal analysis with cumulative-based IPR indexing to generate production profiles for different operating scenarios for a given base-case production forecast. Output profiles can be tested for value in an
economic model. This workflow has been used to rebase the high-pressure gas lift strategy in Delaware Basin and evaluate production impacts of other initiatives (surface-controlled gas lift and smaller annular areas).