Plunger Lift Application and Optimization in the San Juan North Basin—Our Journey

Autor: Peter Olugboyega Oyewole, Divyakumar O. Garg
Rok vydání: 2007
Předmět:
Zdroj: All Days.
DOI: 10.2118/106761-ms
Popis: Plunger lift technology has been applied systematically and successfully to unload liquids from marginal tight gas and coalbed methane wells in San Juan North Basin. This article presents the recommended practices, case studies, and results of excellent plunger lift application and optimization. A production increment of over 4 MMcfd has been achieved and sustained on about 40 plunger lift installations. Most wells that were chosen for plunger installations were either on a plug and abandon (P&A) list or on temporary abandon (TA) status. Neither gas production nor anticipated production uplift from wells could justify installation of a more costly artificial lift system such as sucker-rod pump to de-water wells. Amazingly, production uplift of more than 200 Mcfd, and/or production increment of over 300%, was realized on some wells. It important to note that many operations use the practice of surfacing plungers by auto-venting, thereby releasing greenhouse gas (GHG) into the atmosphere. Plungers were operated successfully in San Juan North operations without this practice. All these results were achieved through applications of new plunger lift technology, efficient plunger type selection, monthly and quarterly reviews, proper maintenance, optimization and monitoring, i.e. effective utilization of plunger lift data. The strong alliance that was formed with the plunger equipment provider was one of the important inputs to our plunger lift journey. This new approach is a significant departure from the conventional ways of operating plungers, whereby service companies traditionally supply plunger hardware to the producing companies to operate with little "service" involved. Also, the field operations' teams, with their perseverance, offered a very important contribution to this successful venture.
Databáze: OpenAIRE