2018019 PLUNGER ASSISTED GAS LIFT - WOLFCAMP

Gas lift is becoming a popular form of artificial lift in the Permian Basin for long horizontal wells that make high gas rates. Unfortunately the decline curves on most horizontal wells are not ideal. As the rates and pressure quickly drop gas lift starts to become inefficient and we are forced to make artificial lift changes in order to preserve base production. Rod pumps have always been the end of life application for artificial lift but it has been proven that pumping in horizontal wells can be very costly due to wellbore conditions. This paper will explain the issues with rod pumping in horizontals and why we decided to convert to gas assisted plunger lift before we convert to rod pump.