Artificial Lift for High-Volume Production
Artificial Lift for High-Volume Production Rod pumps bring oil to surface in many fields, but for better flow rates more than 100,000 wells use subsurface electric pumps or inject external gas to lighten the fluid column. Specialized approaches are needed to optimize existing gas-lift or submersible systems and to design new installations for more complex applications. Roy Fleshman Less than a fourth of producing oil wells flow nat- but there is overlap between systems depending Bartlesville, Oklahoma, USA urally. When a reservoir lacks sufficient energy on subsurface conditions, fluid types, required for oil, gas and water to flow from wells at rates, well inclination angles, depths, comple- Harryson desired rates, supplemental production methods tion configurations, lift-system hardware and Obren Lekic can help. Gas and water injection for pressure surface facilities. Houston, Texas, USA support or secondary recovery maintain well pro- Lift optimization to get the most fluid from a ductivity, but artificial lift is needed when reser- well or field at the lowest cost offers opportuni- voir drives do not sustain acceptable rates or ties for substantial production gains in new wells cause fluids to flow at all in some cases. Lift pro- or mature fields. When selecting and designing cesses transfer energy downhole or decrease lift systems, engineers must consider reservoir fluid density in wellbores to reduce the hydro- and well parameters, but field development static load on formations, so that available reser- strategies should be factored in as well. voir energy causes inflow, and commercial Artificial-lift selection is specialized and often For help in preparation of this article, thanks to Rick Bailey hydrocarbon volumes can be boosted or displaced tedious, but guidelines provide the relative appli- and Duane Russell, Reda, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, USA; to surface.
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