Paper: Sucker Rod Pumping With Pneumatic Surface Units

The concept of pneumatic actuation of a sucker rod string in a pumping well is not new or revolutionary. There are records of patents and applications dating back to the late 1800"s. These early units did not find wide acceptance due to problems of low efficiency, seal wear and leakage. Also, these early units were restricted in depth capacity to about 4000 feet maximum in most cases. There are surface pneumatic pumping units available today that overcome the problems of lew efficiency and seal failure by using new concepts in system control and entirely new seal materials and seal technology. This paper deals with the system design and field application of the most popular of the new generation of pneumatic oilwell pumping units. Applications discussed range from dewatering 1000ft gas wells at 3 BPD to pumping 10,000~ft oil wells at 200 BPD.