Beam Pump Artificial Lift Optimization

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This article gives you some good practices and rules of thumb for optimizing beam pump applications. The following topics have been presented:

  • Artificial Lift Optimization – What does it mean?
  • Required information
  • Typical design situations
  • Optimization considerations
  • Simulate / Measure initial conditions
  • Pump condition, structure loading, and gearbox Loading
  • Miscellaneous notes
  • Design Guidelines: Pump Efficiency, Structure Loading, Gearbox Loading
  • Case 1: Increase Capacity
  • Case 2: Size unit for well w/no unit
  • Dialing in your design
  • Unit Sizing “Rules of Thumb”
  • Sucker Rod Design
  • Rod Guides: Snap Ons, Molded Guides

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Why Do We Counterbalance Sucker Rod Pumping Units?

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A good understanding of counterbalance is vital to the successful operation of surface sucker rod pumping units.  Poor counterbalance practices can cause early failure of the gear reducer gearing and will result in excessive energy cost.

Non-counterbalanced lever system:

The up-stroke:

The figure above represents a simple non-counterbalanced lever system. On the up-stroke, by pulling down on the end of a beam, a man is lifting a bucket full of water having a combined weight of 150 lbs.

Note that the upstroke effort of the man is a substantial 150 lbs.

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The difference between Conventional & Mark II Pumping Units

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This article helps understand the difference between Conventional & Mark II pumping units in term of production performance. SROD, the predictive program from General Electric (GE), has been used in order to compare the Reducer Torque Performance,  the Stroke Length, and the Polished Rod Velocity, of a conventional unit and a Mark II unit. In order to do that, production data from the well MF-1 are used.

MF-1 is an oil well activated using a sucker rod pump. The target rate is 500 BPD, the pump is set at 6000 ft, the plunger diameter is 1.5 inch, the rod string is 86, the stroke length is 144 inch and the pumping speed is 13 spm.

Reducer Torque:

  • Reducer Torque vs. Crank Angle:

SROD, the predictive program from GE, has been used in order to compare the reducer torque performance of a conventional unit and a Mark II unit. The plots “Torque (in in-lbs) versus the crank angle” are depicted in the following graph.

Note that the MKII does a better job approaching the uniform torque goal than the conventional unit and therefore has lower peak torque.

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API Subsurface Pump Designation

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The pump designation is part of API Spec 11AX and describes the main specifications of an API subsurface pump. It is a nomenclature to classify API sucker rod pumps and tubing pumps according to their main characteristics. It is comprised of seven parts, separated by dashes.
Example: 20-125-RHBC-10-4-2-2

Each part, in order, describes the following specifications:

  • Nominal tubing size (inch – given as a key representing the actual size)
  • Basic bore size (inch)
  • Type of pump, type of barrel, location and type of seating assembly (letter code)
  • Barrel length (ft)
  • Plunger length (ft)
  • Length of upper extension, used with heavy-wall barrel (inch)
  • Length of lower extension, used with heavy-wall barrel (inch)

 

Example: A 1 1⁄4 in. (31.8 mm) bore rod type pump with a 10 ft (3.048 m) heavy wall barrel and 2 ft (0.610 m) upper extension, 2ft (0.610 m) lower extension, a 4 ft (1.219 m) plunger, and a bottom cup type seating assembly for operation in 2 3⁄8 in. (60.3 mm) tubing, would be designated as follows:

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Surface Components of Sucker Rod Pumps in different languages

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The working principle of a sucker rod pumping unit, as well as its components, have been detailed in a previous article titled: “Beam Pumping Unit Principles and Components”. This article will focus on the names of surface components of sucker rod pumps used in different languages, namely: Arabic, English, and French.

NB: As a reminder, beam pumping unit is a machine for translating rotary motion from a crankshaft to a linear reciprocating motion for the purpose of transferring mechanical power to a down-hole pump. The purpose, simply stated, of the basic system is to transmit energy from the surface to the downhole pump.

The following figure depicts the main components of a surface sucker rod pumping unit (conventional type in this case).

The following table presents the names of surface components of sucker rod pumps  Arabic, English, and French languages:

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