Mark Gose Billy Hood, Elizabeth Clem and Andrew Borgan, BKV Artificial Lift
James F. Lea, PLTech, LLC
It is recognized in the industry that it is wise to have AL in place before liquid loading is expected for a number of reasons. These reasons include no production loss when the well drops below critical, convenience as the rig may/may not be available when the well drops below critical later, and in some cases some uplift is observed when installing plunger other AL before the rate drops below a calculated predicted critical. The discussion here concerns installing plunger lift in deviated wells in advance of predictions from well-known methods that say the well is not liquid loaded. However loading and significant uplifts in production are still observed with plunger contrary to what should be expected from commonly used industry indictors. Some explanations are offered concerning the cases. The results should be of interest to operators that may experience the same situation/s.