Paper: Plunger Lift Performance Optimized By Flow And Pressure Operated Control Systems In A Turnkey Installation

Fluctuating line pressures and liquid loading are a bad combination and in the Moxa Arch field in Southwestern Wyoming they presented the operator and Weatherford Artificial Lift Systems with a perplexing problem. Can conventional plunger lift be effective in an area with severe line pressure fluctuations? Can it provide for efficient removal of accumulated fluids while reducing or eliminating the need to vent the well and minimizing the time that the lease operator has to spend at the well location? Finally, can this be accomplished with limited resources of field personnel who are unfamiliar with the workings of plunger lift? This paper will discuss a 90 well plunger lift project in the Moxa Arch field that was successful in positively answering all these questions. It will describe the field history, the well candidate selection process, the initial pilot project and the total turnkey installation of plunger lift into 90 wells in a 3 month period of time. It will discuss the advantages of using an Integrated Solution Team approach to the project which provided for fixed installation costs and increased stabilized production, without placing additional burdens on the limited field personnel pool available.