SPE 137184

Statistical Approach for PCP Standardizing

Jose Gamboa, Multiphase Systems Integration LLC

Copyright 2010, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Progressing Cavity Pumps Conference held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 1214 September 2010.
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been
reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its
officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to
reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract
The selection of a progressing cavity pump heavily relies on the expertise and experience of field personnel. Therefore, the
selection of pumps for a large number of wells becomes an energy consuming and cost-effective task where heuristic prevails
over an algorithmic procedure. This paper proposes a new approach that attempt to perform such task by combining
multiphase calculations with well known pump selection criteria and statistical clustering method.
The methodology requires massive information about the well completions, fluid properties and operation conditions that are
utilized for predicting the pressure rising required, inlet volumetric gas fraction among other variables for every well in the
field. Two approaches can be utilized to identify standardized pump models: hit frequency and K-mean algorithm. The
standardized models for a particular well are considered equivalent pumps, which means that any of standardized models can
be utilized in the same well with equivalent results. The process also allows identifying in how many wells a particular pump
model can be utilized.
A case study applying the standardizing methodology is presented. The case is a extra-heavy oil field where standardized
pump models for 592 wells are required for future purchase.
The methodology proposed is the first step to establish an analytical procedure for identifying standardized pump in a field.
The elastomer selection needs to be added to the methodology for sake of completeness; however, it has been left out due to
lack of predicting model for the elastomer swelling, thermal expansion and fluid-material chemical interaction.
Introduction
An early practice among oil operators was to select particular pump models for every well. It led to fields with multiple pump
models from various manufacturers, which created a challenge for MTBF tracking, root cause analysis and failure detection.
When catastrophic failure occurred, the practice was to switch manufacturer without further review of the failure cause. Thus,
trial and error became a common practice for utilizing PC pumps in a field.
The development of testing methodologies for elastomer and better understanding of the pump failure mechanism caused a
radical change in how progressing cavity pump models are chosen for a field. Then, the goal was to reduce the number of
pump models and manufacturers so a limited inventory can simplify the task associated with elastomer testing and selection.
However, the pump selection heavily relies on the personnel expertise and experience because there is not defendable method
for predicting the pump lifetime under certain operating conditions. Usually, engineers learnt how certain pump models
performed based on their own experience. Pump models and manufacturers with a high rate of catastrophic failure were
quickly discard, while pump models and manufacturers with high MTBF became standardized.
Thus, the pump selection improves as the personnel acquire more expertise and experience while the standardized pump is a
sub-product of the PCP development in a field. The heuristic related to the standardizing process may be reduced if an
algorithmic procedure is implemented to identify those standardized pump models. The objective of this paper is to provide a
first review on the standardizing process for progressing cavity pumps. The approach proposed involves the direct simulation
of the pump operating conditions for each well within a well population. Once the calculation are completed, two
methodologies can be utilized for indentifying the standardized pumps: hit frequency and clustering. The hit frequency
consists of counting the number of hits or wells in which each pump model can be utilized. Those pumps with larger number
of hits or wells are considered as standardized models. On the other hand, the clustering methodology is a classical technique
where the wells are classified in group with common characteristics. The classical K-mean method is the clustering technique
utilized for illustrating the methodology.

SPE 137184

Pump Selection Method- Hydraulic Pump Design

The selection of a progressing cavity pump is a stepwise problem. First, the type of pump (single lobe or multi-lobe), the
pump geometry (displacement, pitch and number of stage) and the rotational speed are determined from the pressure rising
(total head) required, free volumetric gas fraction and total flow rate. Next, the stator material and rotor-stator fit are chosen
based on the fluid temperature, fluid characteristics, fluid-material compatibility, presence of fines and fluid viscosity. The
first process is known as hydraulic design while the second process is often referred as material selection.
The hydraulic design of an PCP involves the determination of total flow rate, inlet gas fraction, intake pressure and
temperature, discharge pressure and pressure rising required. This information is utilized for calculating the rotational speed,
rotor-stator fit and number of stage. The procedure for hydraulic design may vary according the aim pursed. In this case, it is
assumed that oil flow rate, well inflow relationship, gas-oil ratio ( GOR ), water cut ( WC ), pump setting depth and tubing/rod
string are known.
Because the oil flow rate is known, the well flowing pressure can be obtained from the well inflow relationship (IPR). The
pump inlet pressure is obtained as algebraic sum of well flowing pressure and the pressure losses between the pump inlet and
the perforation. Next, the pump discharge pressure is calculated by adding the tubing pressure losses to the wellhead
pressure. In both cases, the pressure losses are calculated utilizing a multiphase flow model or correlation. The pressure rising
required for the system is then calculated as,
p = p D p I

(1)

There are two methods to determine the number of stages based on pressure rising required: the maximum pressure per stage
and the maximum pressure rising. The maximum pressure per stage (MPPS) is a heuristic value defined by manufacturers
and vendor, which is based on the field experience and lab tests. The number of stages based on MPSS is calculated as
follows,

# stage =

(2)

pmax,stage

The alternative method is to compare the pump maximum pressure rising ( pmax ) to the pressure rising required. The

pmax is obtained as the pressure increment across the pump at 80% volumetric efficiency for the maximum rotational speed
recommended by manufacturer. A common practice is to calculate pump loading capacity based on pmax . This factor is
defined as ratio of pump maximum and required pressure rising (see Eq. 3)
Loading Factor =

pmax
p

(3)

Thus, pump models with loading factor larger than 4 are very long pump where the torque may become an issue. On the other
hand, the pump reliability may be compromise for loading factor smaller than 1.2.
The pump displacement ( D ) is related to the total flow rate as shown in Eq. 4. The volumetric efficiency ( Ev ) is often set at
a value between 80% and 100% . The rotational speed ( N ) is either suggested by the manufacturer or limited by the
drivehead structural loading and braking capability. Often it ranges between 200 rpm and 300 rpm.
D=

qT
Ev N

(4)

If one assume a 80% volumetric efficiency and 300 rpm rotational speed, Eq. 4 becomes,
D = 0.00417 qT

(5)

The total flow rate ( qT ) is computed as follows,

WC
WC

qT = 0.178 Bg GOR Rs Rsw

1 Esep + Bo + Bw
qo, std
1 WC
1 WC

(6)

SPE 137184

In this equation, Rs and Rsw are the gas solubility in oil and water, respectively. While, B g , Bo and Bw are the gas, oil
and water volumetric factors at the inlet pressure and temperature. These variables are either estimated by black-oil
correlations or calculated utilizing a compositional model. The produced gas-oil ratio ( GOR ), water cut ( WC ) and oil flow
rate ( qo, std )referred at standard conditions are assumed as known variables; however, the gas separation efficiency ( E sep ) is
often unknown. The gas separation efficiency is defined as the ratio of actual gas flow rate flowing through the casing-tubing
annulus ( q g ,c ) to the actual gas flow rate ( q g ) coming from the reservoir at the pump inlet temperature and pressure (see
Eq. 7).

Esep =

q g ,c

(7)

qg

The downhole gas separation efficiency ( E sep ) is set at values between 50% and 90%. However, there is some correlations
and mechanistic model available for predicting the natural separation efficiency. In this study, Alhanati's (1993) simplified
model is utilized for predicting the natural separation efficiency.
The selection of pump models for a wells is summarized as follows,
(1) Pick a pump model from the catalog, which can fit within casing drift diameter
(2) Because the oil flow rate is known, the total flow rate can be determined from Eq. 6.
(3) Rotational speed is calculated from Eq. 5 utilizing pump displacement reported by the manufacture
(4) Calculate the pressure rising required from Eq. 1
(5) Determine the pump loading factor.
(6) if the rotational speed and loading factor are between certain range, the pump is considered as a candidate pump
models for this well.
The pumps obtained from this process are candidate because the elastomer selection needs to be carried out. Finally, the inlet
volumetric gas fraction is a critical factor in the pump reliability. A well can be produced with a PC pump if the volumetric
gas fraction is smaller than 60%. Thus, any well with a volumetric gas fraction above 60% is discard for PC pump
installation.
Standardizing Pump Model Procedure
The pump standardization refers to approaches for increasing commonality of either pump models or pump vendors utilized
in a particular field. The goal is to reduce the variability found in having many pump models and pump vendors.
A pump model is considered standardized when it satisfies the hydraulic design criteria aforementioned in several wells
within a field. It implies that pump inlet volumetric gas fraction, discharge pressure, intake pressure and total flow rate are
calculated for each well. This process is called direct simulation.
Once these calculation are completed, the rotational speed and loading factor are determined for specific pump models. The
pump models that satisfy the rotational speed and loading factor criteria in every well are tagged as candidate models. Then,
the simplest way to recognize those standardized pump models is to search common pump models between wells. In other
words, those candidate models that appear more often are tagged as standardized models. Therefore, this method has been
called hit frequency.
The alternative approach is to classify the candidate models in groups that share common characteristics. This technique
known as clustering has the objective of building some natural subgroups or clusters that are similar according to some
appropriate criterion. Ten Eikelder et al (2004) stated the clustering is basically an optimization problem in which objects
have to be grouped in such way that some given cluster quality function is optimal. Often the quality of a cluster is given by
the squared error,

E=

Es

(10)

s =1

where the cluster error Es is given as,

Es =

1
ns

xi x j

(11)

i , jC S

Hence the problem is to find a clustering C s that minimizes E . Various clustering algorithms are available for that aim,
namely, local search, unsupervised competitive neural networks, K-mean algorithm, hierarchical clustering and support
vector machine. The classical K-mean algorithm is utilized in this paper for illustrating the methodology.
Both methods hit frequency and clustering provide enough information that the following scenarios can be present,
Pump models from same manufacturers can be identified for the same well
Pump models from different manufacturers can be identified for the same well

SPE 137184

Wells that can utilize the same pump model are identified
Most frequent pump models in a field can be identified
However, the clustering technique has an advantage over the hit frequency. The clustering can be utilized for creating a
classification system that can be utilized during the well production lifetime. For instance, let's assume that a certain well has
a high oil production while gas and water flow rates are low. The requirement of pressure rising is high so the well is
classified into intermediate displacement/high head group. After some years, the oil production declines while the water and
gas production increase. The well is then classified into large displacement/high head group. Then the water and oil
production declines even more, but the gas is dominant so the well is classified as large displacement/low head. Finally, the
gas production increase until the point that the displacement required is out of chart, which means there is not PC pump
available to produce this well.
Case Study
Field Description
The field studied is an depleted extra-heavy oil located at Western of Venezuela. The reservoir pressure has dropped down to
350 psig so most wells are produced at 50 psig well flowing pressure. These are vertical wells that are being produced with
rod pumping, which are located in densely populated areas. The goal is to replace the rod pumps by progressing cavity pump
(PC Pumps) in 592 wells out of total well population. These wells are considered marginal or abandon so little information
about PVT is available. The reservoir is classified as saturated while the main drive mechanism is solution gas drive. The oil
production of these wells ranges between 10 stbpd and 353 stbpd, while the GOR is around at 200 scf/stb (solubility gas-oil
ratio for the reservoir).
A typical completion is shown in shown in Fig 1. The pumps are located within the slot liner because low well flowing
pressure. In some wells it requires up to three different rod and tubing diameters. The tubing and rod strings must be reutilized for budget sake, which implies that the completion scheme cannot be changed.

Fig 1. Completion Scheme

Table 1 summarizes the range of operating conditions, fluid specific gravities and current pump setting depth for these wells.
The wellhead pressure has been set at 300 psig while the gas flowing through the casing-tubing annular is recombined at the
wellhead. No gas and torque anchors are utilized in these wells.
Table1: Additional Information
Variable
Minimum
Pump Setting Depth
618
Oil Specific Gravity (API)
9.5
Oil Flow Rate
10
Water Cut
0

Maximum
6009
22.9
353
98%

SPE 137184

Results
The first step is to calculate the volumetric gas fraction at pump inlet, pressure rising required and total flow rate for each
well. Since the pump are located within the slot liner, the intake pressure is assumed to be equal to the well flowing pressure.
The discharge pressure is determined utilizing Hagedorn and Brown (1965) correlation. The fluid properties are estimated
utilizing Kartoatmodjo (1994) correlations for oil properties, Hall-Yarborough (1974) for deviation factor, Lee (1966) for gas
viscosity and McCain (1973) correlations for water phase. The computation are carried out in an Excel spreadsheet prepared
for that aim.
The computation results are presented in Fig 2. Fig.2a shows the total flow rate against the pressure rising required, while the
Fig 2b presents the volumetric gas fraction vs. the pressure rising.

(a)

(b)
Fig 2. Field Operating Conditions

One can observe most of the total flow rate data collapse within a range below 500 bpd where pressure rising ranges values
between 500 psi and 1500 psi. In comparison, the volumetric gas fraction data show broad spread of values that ranges
between 0.05 and 0.75 within the same range of pressure rising.
The total flow rate and pressure rising required are utilized together with a pump database to identify the candidate pumps for
every well. The pump database contains information regarding the displacement, maximum pressure rising, pump outer
diameter of 771 pump models from various manufacturers. For sake of example, only old pump models and companies are
included in the analysis. Therefore, some of the pump models and manufacturers may not be available in today's market. The
candidate models are obtained by filtering the pump database based on the following criteria:
a) Rotational speed ranges between 100 and 200 rpm for the total flow rate aimed
b) Loading factor must be between 1.2 and 4
c) Pump outer diameter needs to fit within the smallest casing drift diameter
The process allows identifying all candidate models that can be utilized for a specific well. Then, the candidate models from
all the wells are collected and organized by pump model. The number of wells in which a specific model can be utilized is
counted. Those candidate models with the largest number of hits are tagged as standardized models. Fig. 3 shows part of the
results obtained from this process. In the figure the different pump models for the field are compared based on the number of
wells into which these pumps can be utilized.

SPE 137184

Fig 3. Standardized Pump Models

The result obtained shows two models from Geremia-Weatherford, one model from Emip/Kudu and three models from
Netzsch as the one with larger number of hits so these are the standardized pump models. Fig 4 shows the nominal
displacement and maximum pressure rising for each of these pumps models. One can observe three groups located at 0.1, 0.2
and 0.25 bpd/100 rpm so one can further classify these pump in three groups: low, intermediate and high displacement. It
implies that a single pump model cannot be utilized for producing all these wells

Fig 4. Pump Nominal Conditions

Notice that the maximum number of hits for any of those pump models is 236, which represents 40% of the entire population.
Table 2 shows the final results from the standardizing process. Five manufacturers and 29 pump models have been identified
for the field. The equivalent pumps have been bordered in the table. The equivalent pumps are defined in this study as pump

SPE 137184

models whose hydraulic characteristic is such that can produce a specific well keeping the same total flow rate and pressure
rising capabilities.
Table 2: Standardized Pump Models
Manufacturer/Model
Well
D (bpd/rpm)
Number
GEREMIA:28.40-500
132
1.07
NETZSCH:NTZ 350*200 ST 16.4
134
1.03
ROBBINS MYERS:60-N-095
132
1.07
ROBBINS MYERS:80-N-095
128
1.07
BAKER:95-B-2300
124
0.95
EMIP/KUDU:60TP1300
147
0.83
EMIP/KUDU:60TP2000
146
0.83
NETZSCH:NTZ 278*200 ST 14
144
0.88
NETZSCH:NTZ 278*165 ST 14
136
0.88
ROBBINS MYERS:80-N-065
208
0.63
ROBBINS MYERS:60-H-065
210
0.63
GEREMIA:28.35-300
200
0.69
GEREMIA:28.35-300IM
200
0.69
NETZSCH:NTZ 278*165 ST 10
203
0.63
NETZSCH:NTZ 278*200 ST 10
208
0.63
ROBBINS MYERS:80-N-045
267
0.44
ROBBINS MYERS:60-N-045
279
0.44
ROBBINS MYERS:50-N-045
249
0.44
BAKER:44-B-2300
269
0.44
GEREMIA:28.25-200
290
0.43
NETZSCH:NTZ 238*165 ST 6.2
266
0.39
NETZSCH:NTZ 238*200 ST 6.2
275
0.39
GEREMIA:18.25-150
107
0.32
EMIP/KUDU:30TP1300
229
0.34
BAKER:25-B-2300
107
0.25
ROBBINS MYERS:60-N-025
115
0.25
GEREMIA:28.25-125
125
0.25
GEREMIA:28.25-125IM
125
0.25
NETZSCH:NTZ 278*240 ST 4.0
143
0.25

DP (ft H2O)
6600.00
6928.41
6000.00
8000.00
5311.78
4250.00
6600.00
6928.41
5715.94
8000.00
6000.00
6600.00
6600.00
5715.94
6928.41
8000.00
6000.00
5000.00
5311.78
6466.51
5715.94
6928.41
4000.00
4250.00
5311.78
6000.00
6600.00
6600.00
8314.09

The alternative approach is to find well clusters utilizing the volumetric gas fraction, total flow rate and pressure rising
required. The application of clustering method is carried out in hierarquical way as shown Fig 5. An initial classification of
the total well population is obtained (cluster M1 and L1) by applying the K-mean algorithm. The cluster L1 contains a few
wells that are considered outlier of cluster M1, which groups the largest number of wells. A second classification is obtained
from applying the clustering method over M1 so two new clusters are obtained (cluster M2 and L2). This process continues
over the M groups until cluster M4 is obtained. This cluster accommodates 353 wells in which squared error is minimized.

SPE 137184

Fig 5. Clustering Process

Fig 6 illustrates the clustering process by plotting the pressure rising required as a function of the total flow rate and
volumetric gas fraction from each well. The light blue dots represent the cluster M1 while the others are wells within the
cluster L1. The difference in color between wells in cluster L1 are due to subgroups created during the clustering process.
Notice that most 90% of the wells are classified within the cluster M1. However, the wide spread observed in the data and the
high squared error lead to the conclusion that this cluster needs to be split in new subgroups.
.

Pressure Rising Required (psi)

3000
2500
2000
1500
1
1000
0.5
500
1500

1000

500

Volumetric Gas
Fraction (fraction)

Total Flowrate (bpd)

Fig 6. Well Clustering

At this point, one may try to obtain a model well for the cluster M4 so the candidate model for this model well can be
considered standardized models for the cluster. This model well can be created by averaging the operating conditions within
the cluster M4 or by applying a joint distribution technique. However, a large portion of the wells in cluster M4 (268 wells)
has been completed with a 7"x 23 lb/ft casing, while the remaining wells utilize casing between 8" and 13.375". It means
some of the candidate model for 13.375 casing may not be able to be installed in 7 casing. Thus, a single well model may
not be suitable for well geometry of this cluster. The alternative is to obtain the standardized pump models applying the hit
frequency technique already explained. The result is presented in Table 3. Some pump models in Table 3 also appears in
Table 2, which supports the methodology consistency.

SPE 137184

Table 3.
Number
of Wells
Geremia - Weatherford:28.20-60IM
208
Geremia - Weatherford:28.20-60
208
Netzsch:NTZ 238 * 150 ST 1.6
126
Netzsch:NTZ 238 * 180 ST 1.6
151
Netzsch:NTZ 238 * 200 ST 1.6
156
Netzsch:NTZ 238 * 240 ST 1.6
160
Netzsch:NTZ 238 * 150 ST 3.2
113
Netzsch:NTZ 238 * 180 ST 3.2
176
Netzsch:NTZ 238 * 200 ST 3.2
181
Netzsch:NTZ 238 * 240 ST 3.2
170
Emip/Kudu:15TP1200
161
Netzsch:NTZ 238 * 180 ST 4.0
126
Netzsch:NTZ 238 * 200 ST 4.0
125
Netzsch:NTZ 238 * 240 ST 4.0
115
Netzsch:NTZ 278 * 180 ST 4.0
126
Netzsch:NTZ 278 * 200 ST 4.0
125
Netzsch:NTZ 278 * 240 ST 4.0
115
Schlumberger:S60F25
120
Bmw - Weatherford:25-6000
120
Corlac:25-6000
120
Geremia - Weatherford:28.25-125
131
Geremia - Weatherford:28.25-125IM
131
Griffin - Weatherford:25-6000
120
Robbins Myers:60-N-025
120

Manufacturer/Model

D
(bpd/rpm)
0.12
0.12
0.10064
0.10064
0.10064
0.10064
0.20128
0.20128
0.20128
0.20128
0.19
0.2516
0.2516
0.2516
0.2516
0.2516
0.2516
0.25
0.25
0.25
0.25
0.25
0.25
0.25

DP
(ft H2O)
6600
6600
5196.305
6235.566
6928.406
8314.088
5196.305
6235.566
6928.406
8314.088
4000
6235.566
6928.406
8314.088
6235.566
6928.406
8314.088
6000
6000
6000
6600
6600
6000
6000

The standardized pump model for every cluster can be obtained following the same methodology. Once all the standardized
pump models are identified, equivalent pump models can be found.
Conclusion
1. A new approach for identifying standardized pump models for a field has been introduced. The methodology offers an
algorithmic procedure that contrasts to the heuristic of the traditional procedure.
2. The application of the methodology has been proved through a case of study
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to acknowledge Dr Aurelio Oliver for their contribution and support to conduct this study. Also, I would
like to thank MSI LLC for their permission to publish this paper.
Reference
(1)
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10

(10)
(11)

SPE 137184

Ten Eikelder, H.M.M, Van Erk, A.A. Unification of some Least Squares Clustering Methods. Journal of
Mathematical and Algorithms,3,105-122, 2004
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