Pre-Conference Schools

This one-day pre-conference school will examine representative laboratory data associated with the selection, monitoring, and optimization of corrosion treating chemicals. We will examine lab data and key performance indicators (KPIs) pertaining to tracking the effectiveness of corrosion inhibitors. We will be discussing produced water analyses, suspended solids analyses, deposit analyses, corrosion coupons, amine residuals and iron/manganese levels. We will review standardized procedures for the sampling and determination of the various monitoring techniques, define and identify possible anomalies that can occur within the data and discuss possible interferences that can impact the various test methods utilized. We will work through various corrosion scenarios as a group to help identify what types of samples and analytical testing should be gathered and performed to help in addressing the corrosion challenge presented.
 
The objectives of this pre-conference school are to review each analysis type used by chemical vendors in corrosion monitoring and discuss the interpretation and application for each test utilized.
 

Day 1 - Fundamentals of Facility Design
1.    Developing a Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) Package
2.    Mechanical design of piping, pressure vessels and storage tanks
3.    Making sure your facility is safe to operate: relief systems, electrical area classifications and personnel safety.
4.    Using proper codes and standards for equipment specifications
5.    Field Welding 
6.    Instrumentation and control system design
7.    Reducing liabilities through risk-based process safety techniques
 

Day 2 – Facility Emissions Management
1.    Governing emission regulations for Texas and New Mexico
2.    Emission goals for your facilities including driving forces and strategies.
3.    Emissions Equipment 
4.    What’s your build out?  Looking at battery types, modules, tankless designs, changing capacities and best equipment practices. 
5.    Monitoring of facility emissions 
 

“Fundamentals of Sucker Rod Lift” is a one-day seminar on the principles and operations of sucker rod lift.  Components of the sucker rod lift system including the pumping unit, rods, tubing, pump, downhole gas separator and prime mover are presented.  Each component of the sucker rod lift system is discussed by one of eight (8) leading industry experts.  How the components function and interact with each other is presented so that the attendee can understand the entire operating system and how the components interact.  An understanding of the reservoir and its production potential and behavior is also presented so that the attendee can optimize the well’s performance.  Attendees will learn the principles of sucker rod lift systems and how to produce wells efficiently.  The results of application of this information in the field will be an increase in production, a reduction in operating expense and greater profits.
Topics
1.    Tubing, Anchors, and Rods
2.    Downhole Pumps
3.    Partial Pump Liquid Fillage
4.    Dynamometer Analysis
5.    Acoustic liquid level Analysis
6.    Pump-off-controllers
7.    Pumping Units and Torque  
8.    Motor, Power and Efficiency
 

This 2-day course is intended to provide operations personnel with a general understanding of gas lift wells, with a particular emphasis placed on operational issues. Upon completion of this course, learners will be able to: (1) describe the key components of gas lift wells and facilities and explain their purpose, (2) explain the process of safely unloading a gas lift well, (3) describe the various slickline operations used in conjunction with gas lift wells, (4) list the various troubleshooting tools and techniques used to support gas lift operations.

Plunger Lift has always been recognized as the most economical form of Artificial Lift for removing liquids from natural gas wells and producing higher GLR oil wells.  With the recovery of oil and natural gas prices plunger lift has become an increasingly popular lift choice.  When combined with gas lift (PAGL) it can increase the efficiency and extend the economic life of wells. This school will cover the various applications across different production parameters.  Topics will include the following:

•    Brief History of the Technology
•    Liquid Loading in Flowing Wells 
•    Various Plunger Lift Applications
•    Identifying & Qualifying Candidates
•    Surface & Down Hole Considerations
•    Surface & Down Hole Completions
•    Installation/Startup/Optimization
•    Plunger Types & Applications
•    Field Operations & Maintenance
•    Electronics/Automation/Telemetry
 

This course will cover the use of automation and host software to monitor, analyze, and optimize a sucker rod pumping system. Discussion will include the operation and configuration of rod pump controllers and variable speed drives, key operating parameters, and how those parameters change under varying well conditions. This information is used with dynamometer cards to analyze well performance and determine the appropriate optimization steps. This course is intended for lease operators, well analysts, lift specialists, production engineers, and any other personnel involved in the operation of sucker rod pumping wells.

     This two-day training has been designed to provide basic foundational knowledge on jet pump systems. Participants will receive technical information and experience-based knowledge that will help them on the selection of the proper jet pump equipment, installation, operation, maintenance, troubleshooting and optimization. This training was conceived for production engineers, lease operators, oilfield pumpers, field production personnel, operations personnel and similar roles in the oil and gas industry. 

Training Outline:
1.    Jet Pump theory and application basics.
2.    Jet pump downhole equipment configurations.
3.    Tubing string installation considerations.
4.    Surface equipment configurations.
5.    Surface equipment installation considerations.
6.    Selection process for proper nozzle/throat combination for the frac flow recovery process and early production stage. 
7.    Selection process for proper nozzle/throat combination after the frac flow recovery process - keeping up with the transient productivity index of unconventional wells.
8.    Jet pump performance & production optimization. 
9.    The jet pump minimum required flowing bottom hole pressure: how low can it go?
10.    Problems with jet pump operations; how to correct them. 
11.    Field visit to a jet pumped well. This well is located near O’Donnell TX (50-minute drive from Lubbock TX).
 

In this class, we will share our many years of experience in various operational topics that can add value to your field operations.  Topics such as 1) sucker rod care and handling to reduce failures, 2) operational best practices proven through multiple case studies, 3) foundations of RCFA, 4) managing downhole pumps communicating with pump shops and tracking pumps (for failure analysis purposes), and 5) discussion of daily rod pump operations related to backpressure, POC/VFD settings, load and testing, hot watering, chemicals, etc.
 

The basics of hydraulic fracturing will be covered from reservoir characterization to fracture mechanics to frac treating pressure analysis. The class agenda will include frac theory, current trends in limited entry, and key production drivers. Students participating in the class will solve problems throughout the day and get overviews of all operational phases of horizontal well completions. Additionally, there will be overviews of hydraulic fracture modeling and horizontal well economics. 

Topics That Will be Covered
1. Reservoir characterization for fracturing 
2. Rock and fracture mechanics
3. Wellbore hydraulics
4. Treating pressure analysis
5. Hydraulic fracturing execution including a discussion of limited entry techniques
6. Fracturing fluids and diverting agents
7. Proppants and fracture conductivity
8. Multi-stage hydraulic fracturing: operations
9. Multi-stage hydraulic fracturing: design
10. Refracs
11. Fracture modeling, production forecasting and economic evaluation
 

This course will cover the use of rod design software to design a rod pumping system. Attendees will design a system for an example well while learning the use of the software, recommended default settings, and how to design for conditions such as sideloading and buckling. Additional topics include rod and pump material selection, differences in pumping unit designs, and bottomhole assembly designs for gas and sand.

In “Oilfield Operational Challenges Managed with Chemical Solutions” Fadi, a ConocoPhillips employee, will describe real world high-impact challenges associated with oilfield production that he has experienced in unconventional completions, such as early life scale/solids/sand erosion, corrosion and organic deposits. Becky will explore the various chemical solutions pros and cons that are available to address these challenges. The class will emphasize the importance of understanding system conditions and constraints to ensure analytical and product performance testing are conducted under system conditions, to best replicate system conditions as closely as possible. Challenges to be included are, but are not limited to, iron sulfide, mineral scale, sand production, corrosion, paraffin and asphaltenes.

This one-day Remedial Acidizing course discusses formation damage of carbonate producing formations, including types of damage associated with the life cycle of a well.  This will include a discussion on both inorganic and organic depositions.  Stimulation techniques of carbonate producers will be covered Including a discussion on acids and additives utilized in both matrix and acid fracturing treatments.

Mechanical Friction applied to the rod string along the wellbore impacts the measured surface rod loading.  This friction acting on the rod string changes the shape of the pump card. The friction acting on the rods are not correctly modeled by the wave equation, resulting in the excess frictional loads and horsepower being displayed in the plot of the pump card (even though the friction is not applied at the pump).  When the pump card loads are higher than expected on the upstroke or plot below the zero-load line on the downstroke; then the displayed pump card loads are outside the expected load range and these excessive pump loads often indicate the effects of mechanical friction acting up hole on the rod string not being accounted for by the wave equation.  The pump card in effect, becomes the trash can for any mechanical loads applied to the rod string, including the weight of the rods that rest on the side of the tubing in a deviated wellbore. Many sets of field data will be used to show various downhole conditions that impact operations.  Dynamometer cards, particularly calculated downhole pump cards are difficult to use for diagnostics of problems that exist in these wells having unaccounted friction.  The process of using dynamometer and fluid level analysis to recommend possible solutions to correct operational problems will be highlighted.  Following list are some of the topics planned for this short course.

1.    Rod stretch shown in the surface dynamometer data used to identify the depth to a severe dogleg in the well that is causing the downhole sticking.

2.    Data collected using downhole load cells will be discussed

3.    Discussion on how the deviation and mechanical friction makes the calculation of down hole sucker rod loadings complex and difficult

4.    Examples dynamometer data showing different types of  Mechanical Friction:
a.    Paraffin
b.    Scale
c.    Over Tight Stuffing Box
d.    Misalignment
e.    Dog-Leg Severity
f.    Deviated Well
g.    Pump Friction
h.    Crimped Tubing
i.    Other