American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2012 - 185

Production Technology
strain sensors gives real-time information
to the operator at a sufficiently early
stage to allow remedial actions, making
casing deformation an essential part of
any reservoir surveillance program," Mody
concludes. "Baker Hughes and Shell first
partnered to develop fiber optic technology
to monitor casing deformation, but applications of SureView real-time fiber
optics monitoring are now expanding
other downhole areas, including monitoring sand control screens."
Downhole Separator
SPIRIT Global Energy Solutions is
expanding applications of its downhole
sand and solids separator in rod-pumped
wells after West Texas operators proved
its worth in the Wolfberry play, according
to President Matt Raglin.
"The separator has helped operators reduce maintenance costs by keeping sands,
asphaltenes, paraffin, scale and other solids
from getting lodged in or causing excessive
wear to the pump," he says.
The separator consists of two, 10-foot
long stages. The first stage consists of a
"tube inside a tube" and is located just
above the mud anchor, explains Raglin.
Fluid entrained with solids enters the
separator near the top of the first stage.
While sand falls at an average speed of
0.5 feet per second, depending on viscosity
of the well fluids, the outer chamber
creates a vortex that accelerates the
velocity of the falling solids, he says.
At the bottom of the first stage, the
solids are discharged to the mud anchor.
The fluid then moves into the bottom of
the inner tube and up into the second
stage. "The size of the middle tube is key
because of suction velocity," Raglin says.
"The smaller the tube, the higher the
suction velocity. We wanted the inner diameter of middle tube to be as large as
possible to reduce suction velocity, because
a higher velocity means the tool is more
apt to pull sands and other solids into
center tube."
During prototype testing, SPIRIT's
team learned that solids also become encapsulated in gas bubbles, Raglin notes.
Consequently, the tool's second stage design includes a gravel filter that bursts
the gas bubbles, causing the sand to fall
out and/or become trapped in the filter to
further eliminate solids from the production
stream. "Conventional tool design failed
to properly consider the suction velocity
of the middle tube, and the fact that solid

particles can become entrained in gas
that floats up in the system," he says.
Concho Resources Inc. was forced to
pull one Wolfberry producing well in
Upton County, Tx., south of Midland
four times in three months before it installed the downhole separator, says Terry
Patterson, assistant foreman over artificial
lift technicians.
"After we installed the SPIRIT sand
separator, we ran the well for 11 months
without any problem," Patterson reveals.
"In our opinion, the tool is a 100 percent
success. We have about a dozen of them
in the hole right now, and we are going to
be running more as a type of preventative
maintenance when we pull other wells."
SPIRIT's longest-performing solids
separator has been in operation for two
years and counting, Raglin notes. "We
are about optimizing designed wells and
improving the overall efficiency," he
states. "Typically, we would not manufacture what I consider downhole optimization tools. But in teaching rod pumping schools and talking to operators, we
learned about two primary problems that
cost operators a lot of money and made
the rod pumping system incredibly inefficient: solids and gases. We developed

our sand and solids separator and gas
separators as optimization tools to eliminate these problems."
And they can be costly problems,
Raglin adds. "A single pump failure in a
Permian Basin well probably costs
$30,000-$50,000 to repair," he estimates.
"These tools cost about 5 percent of that
one failure, so the cost of the separators
are relatively inexpensive compared with
a failed pump system."
Engine Ignition System
Altronic's new directed energy ignition
technology, which enables compressor
engines to more efficiently burn lean or
poorly mixed air/fuel mixtures, represents
a "quantum leap" for ignition systems,
according to David Bell, vice president
of aftermarket sales and service for the
lead plant of Hoerbiger Engine Solutions
in Girard, Oh.
Lower nitrogen oxide (NOx) requirements demand lean operation. Altronic's
newest ignition system, the CPU-XL
VariSpark™, essentially can tailor the
spark to deliver more effective, assured
combustion, he says.
"Many modern natural gas engines
were designed to burn 16 parts of air to

This pulling unit is shown installing a downhole sand and
solids separator from SPIRIT
Global Energy Solutions on a
Concho Resources Inc.-operated well in the Permian Basin.
Concho has installed the separators in a dozen rod-pumped
wells, including a Wolfberry
well in Upton County, Tx.,
which the company had to pull
four times in three months before installing the downhole
sand and solids separator.
With the tool installed, the well
has produced for 11 months
without any problems.

JANUARY 2012 185

American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2012

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