New Solutions for Installation of Sucker Rod Pumps in Marginal Field

Abstract

This paper uses case studies to showcase the techno-economic impact of insert anchor and portable foundation on the development of marginal fields. Case studies are also included for unconventional surface pumping unit – Linear rod pump and hydraulic rod pump in the development of multiple wells from a single wellpad. Cairn India Ltd. is developing the southern part of its RJ-ON-90/1 block consisting of multiple geographically dispersed marginal fields, with small oil pool and varying crude properties. These fields consist of wells from exploration and appraisal era (some as old as 20xx[AD1]) completed for a natural lift with no provision for installing artificial lift system. Later, it was recommended to install Sucker Rod Pump (SRP) as the most suitable Artificial Lift (AL) system. Conventionally sucker rod down-hole pump is installed by running a barrel assembly on the bottom of tubing and plunger assembly at bottom of rod string. However, in an insertable sucker rod pump (ISRP), the entire pump assembly is run-in at the bottom of rod string and is landed on pump seating nipple (PSN) which was originally installed in the tubing string. Hence, installing SRP would require an expensive work-over operation. As the oil prices dropped, the economics of work overs became less justified. Options reviewed to improve the field economics included the use of Insertable pump anchor for installation of through tubing down-hole pump in existing well. This method allows setting the down-hole pump in tubing string without any requirement of pump seating nipple. The anchor provides the flexibility of pulling out and re-installing pump with the new or redressed system in case of pump malfunction or pump size modification etc. Extended application of insert anchor includes flow-back of hydraulic-fractured wells and extended well testing in exploration fields. It provides the flexibility of changing pump size based on reservoir response at the later stage. The multiple set-reset mechanism of insert anchor enables identifying tubing leaks and setting the pump above it. A portable concrete foundation against the conventional concrete base used for surface unit erection provides the flexibility of transporting the foundation between different locations. The foundation can be de-mobilized while placing the work-over rig, which otherwise requires disassembling fixed foundation. The same foundation can be used at multiple well sites saving on the cost of construction and reduced lost production time. On multi-well welllpad system, erection of conventional surface pumping unit on adjacent wells came as big challenge due to space constraint between the wells. Moreover, in the case of any well intervention like work-over, rod change etc. the nearby units requires to be disassembled adding to oil loss. Considering these problems operator decided to look into unconventional surface pumping unit e.g linear rod pump and hydraulic rod pump for the well pad systems.

A comprehensive review of sucker rod pumps’ components, diagnostics, mathematical models, and common failures and mitigations

“…4 Hydraulically actuated sucker rods (Phillips et al 2013) This increases the applicability of the sucker rod artificial lift method by allowing it to be used when the surface space is limited where size is important, most notably in offshore applications. The downhole components are very similar to those of the conventional beam pumping unit (Khadav et al 2016;Lima and Neto 2020). An illustration of the linear rod pumping unit surface components is presented in Fig.…”

“…Murtha et al (1987) Venezuela Orinoco belt field Developed centralizers for sucker rods for applications in deviated wells Rivas et al (1990) USA Pearsall field Provided one of the first review of the performance of sucker rod pumps in more than 150 deviated wells Cortines and Hollabaugh (1992) Venezuela Boscan field Production optimization of two sucker rod pumps using new production scheme Guirados et al (1995) USA San Jorge Basin Utilized coiled tubing as a sucker rod in slim holes to increase recovery Solanet et al (1999) China -A new type of magnetic clutch in the surface components of the sucker rod pumps to improve performance. The magnetic clutch increased pumping speed by 9%, increased liquid production by 30%, and improved power savings by 23.6% Gustavo Galindo Velasco Demonstrated a method referred to as Pull and Push to extract hydrocarbons from shallow wells located at a short distance from the surrounding wells using sucker rod pumps Tigrero et al (2015) USA Eagle Ford Application of sucker rod pumps in unconventional shale reservoirs Clarke and Malone (2016) India Barmer Basin highlighted the economic impact of insert anchor and portable foundation of the application of sucker rod pump in marginal fields Khadav et al (2016) Kuwait Great Burgan field Showed the results for a field application of a sucker rod pump installation on a dual string well inside a 3.5 inch tubing which managed to increase recovery and eliminate the need for a workover rig Leoben Developed a method to avoid buckling in sucker rod string Langbauer et al (2021)…”