Artificial Lift

Mechanical rod rotators have been used as part of the beam lift artificial lift system since the concept was first patented in the late 1930’s. By rotating the rods, the frictional wear surface can be distributed around the circumference of the rod, versus on a single side of the rod. By distributing the wear surface, the rod life will be significantly extended. In the same way, the industry has used tubing rotators to derive this same benefit on the tubing, distributing the wear around the inner circumference of the tubing.

Plunger Assisted Gas Lift (PAGL) in the Permian Basin Over the last few years Gas Lift has become a popular artificial lift choice for producing unconventional wells in the Permian Basin. Gas Lift is a good choice for producing wells with high bottom-hole pressures (BHP) and high gas liquid ratios (GLR). Gas Lift is also a good choice for wells that produce solids or have deviated wellbores. Gas Lift however like all artificial lift choices has an optimum range which typically tends to be above five hundred barrels per day.

Understanding rod loading is vital to reducing failure rates in reciprocating rod lift systems. By changing the minimum stress and using the modified stress analysis instead of the modified goodman diagram, manufacturers are “tricking” you into using high tensile strength and/or premium sucker rods in your rod designs. This presentation will attempt to explain rod loading why most rod lift applications do not require or need  high strength and/or premium sucker rods.

When rod pump wells are operated in corrosive environments, corrosion induced sucker rod parts can lead to premature well failure and expensive, repeat workovers. Many corrosion mitigation solutions exist to combat this type of failure, including metallurgy, chemical inhibitor, and epoxy coatings, but they can be costly and not all solutions are appropriate for all types of wells.

Sucker rod pumping is largely regarded as the final artificial lift method in a well’s lifecycle. Until now, the industry standard application of sucker rod pumping systems has been up to 400 barrels per day fluid production. With the industry advancing towards deeper wells and increasingly aggressive production targets, the challenge of meeting these application parameters while decreasing costs has become forefront to an operator’s requirements for profitability and in some cases, survival.

Due to the ESP motor’s inefficiencies, heat is produced when converting power from electrical to shaft power. This generated heat is either transferred to the surroundings (i.e., through the producing fluids) or absorbed by the motor. In the absence of proper cooling, the motor temperature keeps increasing until either the motor fails or it reaches a temperature high enough to transfer the generated heat to its surroundings. According to the Arrhenius rule, equipment life is expected to reduce in half for every 18°C increase.

Abstract In 2019, we presented the early results of a design change on our insert sucker rod pumps in the Highway 80 field. The information presented previously was eighteen months of data after this change was made. We also included over seven years of data prior to the change. Today we will discuss the forty-eight months of data collected after the design change and more than 11 years reviewing sucker rod pumps stuck in tubing in this field. When an insert rod pump gets stuck in tubing, increases in well-servicing events drive costs and safety risks.

Shooting fluid levels has become a well-known practice in support of daily production operations. The practice of shooting fluid levels is so well-known, in fact, that the term, “shooting fluid levels” is assumed to mean checking the fluid level to determine if a well is producing the maximum fluid potentially available from the formation. The most common use of an acoustic liquid level instrument is to measure the distance to the liquid level in the casing annulus of a well having a downhole pump.

This presentation will discuss a new method of locking out beam pumping unit using a patented and engineered hydraulic sheave lock to support reducing risk at the well site when the pumping unit is shut down for routine maintenance or workovers. It will explore merits of keeping workers entirely out of the swing zone, allowing personnel to accomplish tasks safely and easily, without risk of brake cable failure or slippage resulting in movement of the counterweights.

The objective of this paper is to share insights on mitigating sucker rod corrosion damage in vertical, horizontal and deviated wells with aggressive corrosive conditions such as H2S and CO2, particularly those with histories of corrosion-related rod/tubing failures.