American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2014 - 95

SpecialReport: Artificial Lift Technology
the jet pump was retrieved, the tubing
and packer were pulled, and the total
depth was checked. On the second day,
the rods were run and connected to the
beam pump. On average, the total cost to
switch the pumps was $10,000-$12,000
per well.
After producing a few wells, it was
realized that most of the wells would
need to be on jet pump for only 14-17
days. With the remaining wells, a timeline
was followed that moved each well from
spudding to jet pumping to rod pumping
within six weeks:
* Spud the well on day one;
* Reach total depth on day seven;
* Move the drilling rig off site on
day eight;
* Frac the well on day 15;
* Flow the well back until it dies
(typically three days);
* Bring in a completion unit, drill
out the plugs, and put the well on jet
pump by day 20;
* Run the well on jet pump for 1417 days (days 34-37); and
* Pull the jet pump and install a rod
pump within two days (days 36-39).
Because this timeline became so predictable, we knew when we could expect
to see first oil and start booking reserves
from each well. This allowed us to request
additional funds from lenders to accelerate
the drilling program. At one point, Broad
Oak Energy had six rigs running and
was putting 18 wells a month on production.
Long-Term Advantage
Once the jet pump had produced the
frac sand, the rod pump could be installed
with tubing anchors at the bottom of the
well without worrying that sand would
build up and stick the pump or tubing.
We would still check for sand before installing the pump, but we would rarely
find it.
This allowed the pump to be located
below the perforations, which is the ideal
location because it provides the lowest
bottom-hole pressures and the lowest pump
intake pressures. With the pump above
the perforations, the hydrostatic head
created by the fluid between the top of the
perforations and the bottom of the pump
would have limited fluid production.
Putting the pump below the perforations

also reduced the risk of overpumping,
which is extremely hard on equipment.
This might be one of the reasons most of
the rod pumps lasted 18 months or longer
before failure. That placement also reduced
the amount of gas the pump had to fight.
Because production fell from the perforations to the mouth of the pump, the gas
had time to break out.
If sand had forced us to put the pump

above the perforations, we would have
needed a mud anchor to deal with gas.
The ubiquitous "poor boy" design would
have helped, because forcing the fluid to
rise to an area with lower pressures before
entering the pump would have let some
of the gas out. However, because this design never changes the velocity of the
gas, it might not have encouraged enough
gas to break out.

STOP
HERE...

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Leistritz Advanced Technologies Corp.
(201) 934-8262swww.leistritzcorp.com/pumps

JUNE 2014 95
American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2014

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