Automation in Cyclical Rate Primary Reservoir Significantly Reduces Beam Pump Failures

Conoco. Inc. operates the Dagger Draw field in Eddy County. New Mexico (see Figure 1). The field produces 2500 BOPDI8500 BWPDil 1000 MCFPD from 35 wells on beam pump. The typical well utilizes an API 87 high strength rod design with either a 912 or 1280 conventional pumping unit running 8-9 SPM with a 168" stroke length. The 7,900-ft reservoir is under primary development. A 30-month study is documented during which automated Pump-Off Controllers (POCs) were installed to reduce the high rod failure in the field. Data collected for six months prior to installation indicated that 35 wells averaged 9.8 rod failures per month. In the 14 months following POC installation. Rod failures have been reduced 76% to an average of 2.4 per month. Automated surveillance of the POCs using a central computer has resulted in increased efficiency. Manpower requirements have been reduced by one employee in the field. A previously unknown seven to eight day variable production cycle was observed field wide. This discovery helps to explain the failure of Conoco's previous attempts to control the fluid pound or gas pound with time clocks.