Brett Williams, ChampionX
Kenyon Powell with Burk Royalty will be co-presenting
Pump off controllers (POC’s) that produce dynamometer cards are and have been the preferred method of detecting pump off in rod pump applications. In addition to detecting pump off, these devices provide several leading indicators such as run time, cycles, peak and minimum loads, gearbox and rod stress, and a variety of other data points. In order to do this, a load cell, a position measuring sensor and other technology is needed, thus driving up the cost of the traditional POC, and making it harder for a marginal producer to justify the expense of this type of POC.
With rising cost of downhole failure repairs, electricity, and the increasing need for the ‘pump by exception’ model, a cheaper POC (Smarten Lite) has been developed to do basic pump off control and remote surveillance for marginal wells that cannot justify the expense of the traditional POC. This would include wells with no automation at all, wells on timer, and wells on less robust low-cost devices. It is estimated that there are at least 50,000 rod pumping wells in the US that are operating with no automation or only mechanical timers.
Benefits and capabilities of this new technology are:
1. Reduced electrical costs by running just enough.
2. Reduced downtime through instant notification of down wells.
3. Reduced failure rate through reduced fluid pound.
4. Better staff efficiency by enabling ‘pump by exception’.
This paper will present several case studies to demonstrate the benefits of this new technology as it applies to marginal wells.