ROD PUMP CLEARANCE GUIDANCE

Slippage is required for lubricating the plunger/barrel within beam pumping systems. Increasing pump clearance increases the amount of slippage, which may lead to inefficient operations. Operators could run their field more efficiently through decreasing failure rate and increased electrical cost savings by calculating the optimum design using the Patterson Slippage equation for individual well conditions. This paper will discuss the economic tradeoffs with changing pump clearances and recommend theoretical optimum designs given well conditions. The paper will also include nomographs and a calculator to recommend optimum designs.