Tommy Mazal, Devon Energy
Richaqrd Shook, Daniel Murski, Sara Million, Victoria Pons, Joe Calhoun, and
Spencer Evans
Liberty Lift Solutions
As an operator, success rests in trying to maximize safety and production while minimizing your cost and downtime. Most operators choose ESP as a first form of lift and will later transition to gas lift, rod pumps, jet lift, etc. Other operators choose to use gas lift or rod lift as a first form of lift.
Each of these forms of lift presents its own rewards and drawbacks.
For example, overtime, ESP can become oversized for the production requirement of the well. At that point, it can become more economical to install gas lift, rather than resize the ESP pump. Solids, Deviation and corrosive environments are inhibitors for ESPs and rod lift limiting the production potential for the operator.
In other applications, long stroke units or conventional rod pumping offer the best solution with high production rates at a much lower cost than an ESP installation.
In this paper, benefits and challenges for each ESP, Gas Lift and Rod Lift and insights on the best conversion time, will be discussed.
This paper aims to provide data to help the customer understand how employing the best type of lift at the most appropriate time directly translates to maximizing revenue and production while minimizing losses and failures.