American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2016 - 81

SpecialReport: Artificial Lift Technology
position in the curve, and the pump-off
controller and variable speed drive need
to be set correctly. Fortunately, the more
experience we get, the better we get."
Ellithorp predicts the technology will
have broad application. "For the system
to work, the well needs to produce some
gas, but not a ton," he says. "With a
right-sized tailpipe, we are hoping it will
take only a minimal volume to gasify the
liquid column and see most of the benefits.
If that turns out to be the case, we may
be able to double or triple production in
low-volume, low-pressure wells that have
been ineffectively producing 10 bbl/d
and 50 Mcf/d for five or 10 years."
Chemical Injection
To reduce the cost of chemical treatments on rod-pumped or ESP wells, ProJect Chemicals Inc. is developing smaller,
more affordable versions of its microbatch
Ayre-Flo™ chemical injection system,
announces Vice President Greg Darby.
He describes the system as a more affordable, effective, and reliable alternative
to both batch treatments and continuous
injection pumps.
The system uses inert nitrogen to pressurize a steel chemical reservoir. When
an automated electric valve opens, the
pressure pushes the chemical out of the
tank and into the well, Darby explains.
He emphasizes that unlike truck-delivered
batch treatments, which can be unreliable,
this chemical delivery process works even
when the roads get muddy or icy.
Reliability is one of the system's
biggest advantages over continuous injection pumps, which Darby says are in
constant motion and subject to wear and
tear. "The only moving part of our system
is the electric valve, and it has a theoretical
lifespan of 1 million cycles. Assuming it
functions only eight times a day, which
is the number of microbatches we generally recommend, that is enough for 340
years," he offers. "And since the tank is
made of steel, much like a propane tank,
it requires no maintenance."
Efficiency is another system advantage,
Darby continues. "Rather than generating
horsepower to power a pump piston, we
put the horsepower in the tank through
the inert gas pressure," he details. "We
can move a lot of chemical in a short
time. We also can treat wells at extremely
low volumes, such as less than a quart a
day, where a chemical pump would be
inefficient."
The chemical injection rate is deter-

Pro-Ject Chemicals Inc.'s Ayre-FloTM chemical injection system offers effective and reliable chemical delivery. Because the chemicals are stored in a sturdy, nonventing tank,
the system also minimizes safety and environmental risks.

mined by how often and how long the
electric valve opens, Darby notes. As
chemical leaves the steel tank, there is
some pressure loss. When the chemical
reservoir is filled, the pressure increases.
The nitrogen does not need to be replenished to maintain the working pressure
in the system, he says.
Pro-Ject Chemicals uses the same electronics that operate the chemical injection
valve to automate an electric motor valve
it can place on the flowline to provide
flush fluid, Darby says. "The fluid comes
from the well, so we are not introducing
a foreign source of flush that may contain
corrosion-causing oxygen or bacteria,"
he remarks.
Darby says the Ayre-Flo is covered
by numerous patents, including one on
the technique it uses to adjust to the
pump's schedule. "By connecting the
system with the pump's motor or the
pump-off controller, we stop treatments
when the pump goes off line, ensuring
they only occur when flush fluid is available," he states. "When the pump comes
on line, the system will compensate for
the downtime, providing the recommended
treatment volume no matter how many
times the well cycles."
The chemical injection systems can
be monitored remotely through satellite,
radio, cellular, and SCADA networks,
Darby mentions. "It is completely transparent," he stresses. "Customers can log
into the system, verify chemical deliveries,
and confirm they are applying the correct
dosage. And if a problem occurs, the
system will send exception reports so we

can respond quickly.
"We are working with customers and
vendors to see if we can tie our system
into existing customer communication
networks," he adds. "We feel this is an
important value-added capability to what
is generally a high lease operating expense
for producers."
To show how much of a difference
the Ayre-Flo's consistent treatments make,
Darby cites a study conducted for a
Central Texas operator whose wells were
treated by three chemical companies, including Pro-Ject Chemicals.
"We had only seven chemical-related
failures in 2015 while the competing vendors had 22 and 29. Looking at the failure
frequency rate annualized to 12 months,
our wells had a rate of 0.07 while the
others had rates of 0.22 and 0.15. Our
mean time to failure also was longer," he
reports. "The average well failure cost
$48,000, so we saved the customer a lot
of money on the wells that used our
system."
❒

Coming In July
In July's Oil Industry Banking
Strategies special reports, experts in
the financial sector assess whether
the time is right to establish new
manufacturing and service capacity,
and explore the crucial role of private
equity investment in funding new oil
and gas technology and service
providers.
JUNE 2016 81

American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2016

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