Paper: (10) USING ROD GUIDES EFFECTIVELY IN VERTICAL WELLS: WEST TEXAS WATERFLOOD CASE HISTORY

Metal to metal contact shortens the run life of both tubing, steel and fiberglass sucker rods.  Using sacrificial rod guides can extend this life at the expense of increased side and axial loading enhanced by Coulomb friction effects.  The problem is not limited to directional and horizontal wells.  Just how crooked are our vertical wells?  Simple inclination surveys insufficiently describe the wellbore path drilled.  Knowledge of failure history, inclination and azimuth of wellbore path, plus access to a rod design program provide insight into effective placement of rod guides and longer run life.  A case history from an established West Texas waterflood is presented to illustrate the application.