(2023042) A Novel Technique To Maximize Corrosion Fatigue Resistance of Sucker Rods

In 2015 a proprietary quenched and tempered sucker rod product line was introduced to the North American market. Field results showed a considerable improvement of reliability and performance of the two proprietary rod grades (Critical Service, CS, and High Strength, HS versions) versus previously installed rod grades. The performance and reliability of over 300 installs are tracked and used to provide input to R&D and Product Development teams to continuously improve the products with the goal of further increasing run life and performance.

In 2020, Root Cause Analysis and ultimately, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) from rod failures in Chord Energy’s wells identified specific scenarios present in deviated, high load wells in the Bakken that created loadings exceeding the simulations from industry rod lifting and string design software by a significant percentage. This was key input to understand the necessary steps to further improve the corrosion fatigue performance of the rod grades.

An extensive research and development project identified a possible continuous improvement in the form of optimized Surface Texture & Finishing (ST&F). A matrix of various Surface Texture and Finishes were performed on samples with controlled variables for corrosion fatigue testing, which was executed at an in-house laboratory and benchmarked with earlier testing. Based on these results, the next generation product was deployed to wells in the Bakken for field trials, where previous rod grades had major challenges with run life.

Finally, field data and results on run life from these field trials will be included to showcase the performance.