Artificial Lift

Standing and Traveling valves can be considered as the heart of a rod pump. An unrestricted fluid flow through the standing and traveling valves improve the pump efficiency and pump life. An unrestrained fluid flow through the traveling valve helps the sucker rod string to fall freely, which reduces rod buckling and eliminates unnecessary load on the surface unit. And in the case of the standing valve, it reduces the velocity and pressure drop across the cage, which lessens the gas lock in a pump.

At the well or through the cloud from any location in the world an operator can troubleshoot and analyze the performance of any well. Fluid level and dynamometer test can be acquired and used to analyze challenging sucker rod lifted wells without requiring the operator to be present at the wellsite. The operator can automatically acquire precisely time stamped high frequency data using an acquisition schedule created/modified remotely to acquire data for an extended time period and/or acquire individual test on demand.

Incomplete fillage conditions where the downhole pump does not completely fill up with incompressible liquid has been widely accepted to have detrimental effects on pumping efficiency and moreover the equipment longevity in sucker rod pumping applications.
Methods of synchronizing the pump displacement to the wells inflow and thus reducing incomplete fillage has been of keen interest to the industry. 

The percentage of oil wells using 3-Phase Electric motors controlled by Variable Frequency Drives is continuing to grow.  As new wells come online they are also added to existing Utility feeder lines.     As a result of increasing non-linear load density, utilities are gradually turning to stricter enforcement protocols.  New utility interconnect permits may be withheld until the utility is satisfied that a new pad will comply with IEEE519-2022.

Extended-reach horizontal well geometries and higher hydraulic fracturing stage counts have led to increased well productivities in tight oil plays across the Lower-48. However, lateral lengths in excess of 10,000 feet with complex fracture networks can also introduce more dynamic behavior and even more severe production declines over time, often exacerbated by tight oil formations that produce fluids with higher gas-to-oil ratios, sand and solids content, and water cuts. 

QSO Inc. has developed a product to provide a unique and simple solution to problematic or inefficient plunger lift systems installed in horizontal wells in the USA. QSO’s Patented* Horizontal Check Valve (HCV) has removed the limitations that once burdened the industry in not being able to hold fluid properly in a horizontal well. Our HCV has proven to hold fluid in wells where conventional check valves start failing.

This paper will cover sucker rod pump barrels that are available in the industry for downhole sucker rod pumps, as well as tapered barrels for pressure balance on the upstroke.  For barrels it will cover their traditional uses, interesting exceptions to API 11AR recommendations, barrel materials and their applications, and tubing anchor effects.  The theory behind a new tapered barrel pump will be covered, as well as the materials used, a unique testing apparatus and the advantages to the operation of the well. 

To deal with gas and sand problems in their conversion and rod pump wells an operator company in south Texas started introducing a combined technology of two-stages filtration with a modified poor boy gas separator obtaining excellent results. This paper explains the technology used and shares the information used to design the tools and the results achieved in the first wells completed. The screening process to choose the best technology started by trying different technologies for gas and sand control below the rod pump.

Rod pumping horizontal wells is more complicated and challenging than for vertical wells. For system reliability reasons, it is common for horizontal wells to have a rod pump placed in the vertical section above the wellbore’s curve, which limits drawdown. This means the pump is placed a vertical distance above the producing zone and a pressure gradient of fluid between the pump and the producing zone exists. This pressure gradient can add 200- 500 psi of back pressure to the producing zone, limiting drawdown.

Rod pumping has been challenged by solids contained in produced fluids, as they reduce pump run-life. For horizontal wells solids risks have dramatically escalated, as hydraulic fracturing has exponentially increased in terms of number of stages and the amount of proppant pumped. EOR schemes can also escalate solids in produced fluids. To combat solids in the produced fluids reaching a pump, control methods have included solids separators and filtering screens. Both methods have realized limitations and therefore have not effectively resolved solids risks to acceptable levels.