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Abstract
With years of study and experiments, a complete series of
Progressive Cavity Pump (PCP) products has been developed.
Sets of down-hole pumps for various rates and lifting
capacities were developed for water-flooding, polymerflooding and ASP flooding areas according to the specifics.
One of the newest techniques, a hollow rotor PC Pump, has
been applied in more than 800 wells. It has proved to be an
effective way in removing the wax build-up and reducing
operation cost. Another specially designed product was the
sucker rod. By strengthening and redesigning the area
susceptible to failure, the new sucker rod prolonged the
running life of the lifting systems considerably. Also, a new
type of drive head with compact structure has been proved to
be more convenient in maintenance and more economic than
the traditional products. By means of completed monitoring
techniques including PC Pump testing equipment and
diagnosing software, PC Pump systems can be monitored in
real time. This decreased the frequency of failures and
improved the benefits effectively.
With more than 2000 PCP wells in Daqing Oilfield, the
capital and operating costs have reduced dramatically. The
PCP system, the most effective lifting method, has great
potential for Daqings Oilfield.
Background
Daqing Oilfield lies in the center of Songliang basin in North
east China. In the beginning stages, commingle water injection
and separate zone water injection technologies were used
which allowed the reservoir pressure to remain at a high level.
Therefore, by natural power the oil field produced for nearly
twenty years. To maintain the output, artificial lift
technologies were used from 1980s. Beam pumping system
was the most popular one. Up to the end of last century, the
number of beam pumping systems in Daqing reached over
20,000 wells. There were also about 2,000 ESP wells in
operation.
In 2000, the average water cut for the whole oilfield reached
nearly 90%. Huge operation cost was the most serious
problem for beam pumping system. In 2002, the total power
consumption of artificial lifting systems was nearly 10 billion
kWh, which was over one third of the whole oil fields power
consumption.
From 1990s, polymer flooding, APS flooding and other
EOR technologies were applied in Daqing oilfield. The
recovery of the oilfield improved considerably. On the other
hand, the failure rate for the artificial lift system increased
dramatically due to the changing properties of output. For
example, the beam pumping system in polymer flooding areas
decreased the average running life from more than 600d down
to 270d. Cost for overtime also increased by ten million RMB
per year.
As for ASP flooding area, the results were even more
serious. Due to high scaling in pumps and strings, the average
running life of the beam pumping system was less than 60d,
while the shortest running life was within a month. Artificial
lifting technology has become a bottleneck problem for
Daqing Oilfield in EOR period.
With this in mind, PCP system was chosen to be the first
alternative. It has lower investment and operation cost, higher
efficiency, and a high viscosity and sandy liquid production.
PCP Technologies in Water Flooding Area
Problems in Pilot Test. At first, Daqing oilfield was regarded
as the best place in China for the application of PCP lifting
system: all vertical wells, lower lift (less than 1000m), no
sand, lower oil gas ratio(less than 100), and no H2S. But due to
the limitation of manufacturing technology, PCPs were first
used only in small production rate wells whose production was
less than 30t/d. It was expected that PCP technology would be
successfully used in water flooding area in Daqing within five
years. But as of 1996, there were only 10 wells in the whole
oilfield. See Figure 1. High failure rate was the killer of this
new technology.
The main forms of the failures were pump and rod failures.
In most cases, the systems operating current increased
quickly which resulted in rods being broken frequently. Also,
upon examining the strings, they sometimes appeared to have
been twisted like a rope. Due to the severe deformation of
elastomer, pumps could not be reused after treatment.
Moreover, stators dropping out failure was also a concern.
Improvements of Elastomer. A special laboratory was
created to research the PCP system. Experiments indicated
that the problems mainly came from three things: (1) the
formula of elastomer didnt fit for the conditions of the
oilfield. The swelling of the stators was too high to keep the
pump operating normally. (2) Bonding technology in
processing the pump was not qualified and resulted in stators
dropping out failures. (3) The design parameters of the pump
were not the optimum. Therefore, the performance of the
technology was limited as well.
According to the above analysis, a series of experiments
were carried out in advancing elastomer formula, improving
the pumps processing technology, and optimizing the pumps
design parameters.
1.
Advancement of elastomers formula. The
elastomers formula was adjusted in the following three
respects:
(1) Adjusting the vulcanization system. Through the reselection and adjustment on sulfidizer and rubber activator, the
elastomers heat and aging resistance were improved
effectively.
(2) Improving the antioxidant. The major factors which
influence rubbers aging time include oxygen, heat, and
fatigue. When temperature rises 1, the oxidation rate will be
increased by 1 time. So its very important to select a proper
antioxidant for elastomer.
(3) Adjusting the strengthening agent to improve the
physical mechanical properties of the stator.
A new elastomer formula was developed after years of
study. Table 1 gives the performance contrast between the
previous elastomer and the new one. It obviously shows that
the physical mechanical properties of new formula elastomer
are much better than the previous one.
2.
Improvement of processing pump technology. A
series of innovative techniques were undertaken to improve
the pumps processing quality :
(1) Improving the force plugs centralization in the process
of elastomer injection. In the old elastomer injection process,
its not easy to put the stators force plug and outer barrel
exactly at the same axis, which often resulted in uneven
thickness of elastomer. In that case, the pumps operating load
would be unstable which decreased the pumps running life
and was easy to cause pump failure. Thus, a centralizing
treatment was added in the elastomer injection process, which
improved the stators quality effectively.
(2) Improving the bonding effect by spraying sand
technique. High stator drop out failure rate came from the
problems in stator bonding technology. Analysis indicated
that, there were some severe defects in stator bonding agent
and bonding process. After reselecting the bonding agent and
reforming bonding technology, the bonding strength increased
considerably.
3.
Optimization of pumps design parameters. PCP
design parameters mainly include: rotor/stator minor diameter
(D), rotor pitch (t), rotor eccentricity (e), stator-rotors fit (),
and steps(Z). And the optimization of these parameters were
carried out by the following two respects:
(1) Determining the optimization goals.
a. To get a larger flowing area. In order to get a larger
flowing within a limited casing inner diameter, the design
parameter should have the following relationship:
IPTC 10032
D + 4e + hmin < D0
[eq.1]
Where, hmin is the minimum value of stator mandrels
thickness. Then, for a given PCP series products, the
relationship of design parameters is showed as [eq.2]:
C = D + 4e
[eq.2]
In order to get the maximum of flowing area S=4eD, from
S
=0
e
S
=0
D
or
[eq.3]
b. To get higher volume rate and a smaller flowing velocity.
During the process of rotation, lifting liquid on the edge of the
action line of rotor has the highest velocity:
v y max = n T 2 + (4e + D) 2
[eq.4]
T = 2 D
[eq.5]
c. To get a slower sliding velocity. Lower sliding velocity
between rotor and stator helps to decrease the elastomers
wear as well as prolong PCPs operating life.
When the flowing area is given, thus:
v max
=0
D
v max
=0
e
or
[eq.6]
The same result could also be deduced: D=4e.
(2) Analyzing the design parameters influence on PCP
performance. PCPs performance consists of three respects:
displacement, load, and mechanical efficiency. The
mechanical efficiency is calculated by the previous two,
therefore, PCPs performance is mainly reflected by its
displacement and load performance.
Eq.7 shows that PCPs displacement per rotation depends
on the value of design parameters. Table 2 gives three type of
PCPs displacement per rotation.
Q = 4eDTn
[eq.7]
PCPs loads consist of torque, axial force and cross force.
And rod strings operating torque mainly consists of rotors
operating torque and tilting moment. Figure2 shows that,
operating torque and tilting moment depends on e, D and t,
while tilting moment has no relationship with eccentricity (e).
PCPs axial force is one of the major factors in selecting rod
sting, while the rod strings oscillation mainly depends on the
cross force. Figure 3 shows that, axial force has no
relationship with pitch (t), and cross force is related to
eccentricity (e). Table 3 gives three PCPs specifications with
different interference between rotor and stator.
Pump failure rates decreased dramatically after taking the
above innovative from 1998. Till the end of 2001, the number
of small rate PCPs in Daqing Oilfield rose up to 448 wells; the
average running life reached 640d.
Hollow Rotor PCP Technology. Wax removal is necessary
for oil producers of Daqing Oilfield due to the high wax cut in
most areas. The most popular method in Daqing Oilfield is
water-flushing technique which injects hot water into casing
annulus from the well head of producers. Hot water was
generated from pump stations, and was sent to the producers
IPTC 10032
IPTC 10032
IPTC 10032
(3) Two novel sucker rod designs could ensure the PCP
systems operation effectively in large rate producers or
other complicated working conditions.
(4) Zero leakage drive head has remarkable advantages in
the environmental, high efficiency, and maintenance,
which has been widely used in Daqing Oilfield.
(5) The new wireless testing and analyzing technology has
been proven to be very helpful in decreasing PCPs failure
rate and improving PCPs management as well.
(6) PCP lifting technology is a systematic engineering, which
needs continuous development in every component and
matching technologies. Long terms of research and
development, large sum of investment, and the continuous
application in new techniques are the most important
experiences for Daqing Oilfield in applying more than
2000 PCP wells successfully.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of
Production Engineering & Research Institute, No.1, No.3,
No.4 and No.6 oil companies of Daqing Oilfield Ltd., Co. for
providing large quantity of experiments and pilot tests results.
They would also like to thank Daqing Oilfield Ltd., Co. for
permission to publish the data in their study.
References
1. Wang Yan et al: Technology for Controlling Eccentric
Wear of Sucker Rods and Tubing in Pumping Wells
Lifting Fluids Containing Polymer, paper SPE 89927
presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and
Exhibition, Houston, Texas, 26-29 September, 2004.
2.
3.
4.
IPTC 10032
Unit
Degree
MPa
%
MPa
Standard
655
12
50050
8.5
Elastomer#1
75
20.43
565.2
11.5
Elastomer#2
69
22.66
576.8
10.91
Peel strength
kN/m
61.2
cm /1.61km
3050
0.15
61.6
Abrasion wear
Break-off strength
variety
Air aging at
Break elongation
9024h
variety
Hardness variety
0.13
0.15
-16.74
-3.49
-12.24
-3.68
Degree
<20
41.45
19.57
kN/m
16
19.6
18.62
e
(mm)
D
(mm)
2t
(mm)
V=8eDt
(mL/r)
GLB120-27
5.0
40
160
128
GLB500-14
7.5
44
400
528
GLB800-14
8.0
50
500
800
Standards(0.30.7)mm
8
150
Fit=0.3mm
Fit=0.5mm
Fit=0.7mm
6
150
9
150
10
150
6090
36.17
76.43
83.37
50
30.70
76.43
83.37
35.66
52.06
78.60
Table 4: Wax removal results by hollow rotor and solid rotor technique
Well number #
X331607
N12215
P9546
Before treatment
After treatment
Before treatment
After treatment
Before treatment
After treatment
Rate
PCP
TYPE
t/d
Hollow
rotor
Hollow
rotor
Solid
rotor
4
9
5
7
3
5
Active
power
kW
4.44
2.65
4.22
2.76
3.33
2.26
Inlet
temp
Outlet
temp
Inlet
pressure
MPa
78
59
1.70
75
58
76
40
2.50
Time
h
IPTC 10032
2500
1627
1283
1500
778
1000
373
500
165
10
54
1991
1996
1999
0
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
Year
Figure 1.
6000
5306.1
T Tz,N.m
Tz
4000
T
2853.2
2000
1018.4
415.0
672.2
0
GLB120-27
GLB500-14
GLB800-14
70
63.66
60
Fc Fa kN
Number (wells)
2010
2000
Fc
Fa
50
40
30
20
10
0
44.82
25.60
16.30
21.12
12.80
GLB120-27
GLB500-14
GLB800-14
IPTC 10032
Rotor
Flusing
Flusing
liquid
liquid
Flusing
liquid
Stator
(a)
Figure 5.
1
T
IPTC 10032
#1 Design
#2 Design
Figure 7.
R1
R2
Fillet radiuss optimization of rod coupling
Maximum stress(MPa)
Figure 8.
Fillet radius
Figure 9.
#3 Design
R3
10
IPTC 10032
Figure 11.
Figure 12.
Transmitter
Sensor
Computer
Figure 13.
IPTC 10032
11
400
350
N.m,t,rpm
N.m,t,r/min
300
Torque
Axial force
Rotating speed
250
200
150
100
50
0
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
Time(1/30s)
Figure 14.
Figure 15.