How and Why Tubing Anchors Reduce Operating Costs of Rod Pumped Wells

The desirability of using a tubing anchor in a pumping well to increase effective pump stroke and to reduce wear on sucker rods, tubing and casing has been recognized for many years. It is well known that an unanchored tubing string "breathes" as a portion of the fluid load in the tubing is alternately transferred between the tubing and the sucker rods during the pumping cycle. The elimination of this movement of the tubing string by means of an effective anchor should provide obvious benefits to the operators of rod pumped wells. However, the use of tubing anchors in the past has, in general, given overall results that have been somewhat disappointing at best. In many cases there has been little or no increase in pump efficiency and rod and tubing wear have continued to reduce appreciably the operator's margin of profit.