Guidelines & Recommended Practices

Selection of Artificial Lift Systems

for Deliquifying Gas Wells
Prepared by Artificial Lift R&D Council
Status
 Document written and edited
 Chair: Cleon Dunham, cleon@oilfieldautomation.com
 Team: Not applicable
 Comments: Not applicable

A.7 Annex 7 – Recommendations to Collect Good Information

The recommended practice to collect good information of operation, surveillance,

and optimization of gas wells is to use a state-of-the-art production automation
system and have this system operated by trained personnel who are dedicated to
its use on a continuous basis.

This topic is fully covered in Chapter 15 of “Gas Well Deliquifcation, Second

Edition,” by James F. Lea, Henry V. Nickens, and Mike R. Wells. Chapter 15 on
Production Automation is by Cleon Dunham and Greg Stephenson. There is
no need to repeat the information from that document here. The following table
summarizes the key recommendations in that chapter.

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Automation 428  Instrumentation is at the heart of any automation
Equipment system.
 It must support accurate measurements, control, and
optimization.

 Instrumentation 428  This is not the place to save money.

 Buy reliable, accurate instrumentation.

 Electronic flow 432  Use electronic flow measurement for all cases where
measurement gas flow measurement must be accurate; for example
for any custody transfer application.

 Controls 434  Control equipment must be reliable.

 RTU’s and PLC’s 440  Acquire RTU’s and PLC’s that are specifically designed
for each application, type of artificial lift system, etc.
 Do not try to use one general RTU or PLC for all
applications.
 Consider variable speed drives when needed to
effectively control pumping systems.

 Host systems 443  Use one “host” system that can communicate with and
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support all different forms of RTU’s, PLC’s, and
applications.
 This is the place to standardize on one system.

 Communications 444  Insist on reliable communications that can transmit

information at the needed speed.
 Where possible use wireless communication to reduce
installation and maintenance costs.

 Data base 450  Most real-time databases (on the production

automation system) have relatively limited storage.
 Consider supplementing this with a data historian (see
below).

 Other 453  Where pertinent, consider integration of the automation

system with other systems for well analysis, artificial lift
system design and optimization, etc.

General Applications 455  General applications are part of most generic

automation systems.
 They are essential but not sufficient to meet the needs
for a production automation system.

 User interface 455  The user interface should be the same as or very
similar to the window interface from Microsoft, since
more people are familiar with it and find it easy to use.

 Scanning 456  The scanning system collects information from the

wells, artificial lift systems, and facilities.
 It must collect the amount of information required, at
the desired frequency.

 Alarming 456  Automation systems are designed to produce alarms.

 However, many systems produce so many alarms that
people can’t make effective use of them.
 The alarm system must be flexible so it can produce
“important” alarms without generating so many as to
create “noise.”

 Reporting 459  The Operator must be able to design reports to meet

his/her needs.
 Reports should support internal calculations,
averaging, summaries, sorting, etc.

 Trending and 461  Trend plots of variables vs. time must permit plotting of
plotting one or more measured or calculated variables on a
plot, for any desired duration.
 Graphs must also provide x vs. y plots.
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 Displays 462  The display processor must support static displays,
generic displays (e.g. a display for a type of well that
can be used for any well of that type), and dynamic
displays where the user can enter data, commands,
etc.

 Data historian 464  Most automation systems have relatively limited data
storage capabilities.
 A data historian can store vast amounts of data, over a
long period of time, and permit rapid access to the
information.

Unique Applications 465  For a production automation system for gas well
for Gas Well operations, the system must provide unique services
Deliquification for each type of artificial lift system, in addition to the
general applications listed above.

 Plunger lift 465  There are several ways to monitor and control plunger
lift wells.
 The automation system should support all of the
proven methods so the Operator can choose the one
best suited to his/her wells.

 Sucker rod 471  Modern sucker rod pumping systems use rod pump
pumping controllers (PRC’s) to monitor and control the pumping
units.
 The automation system must support the functions of
the several different types of RPC’s, correct
information from them, and support the functions of
sucker rod monitoring, control, problem diagnosis and
analysis, design, and optimization.

 PCP pumping 478  Unique automation applications have been developed

for progressing cavity pumping.
 The system must support each of these so the
Operator can choose the best approach for his/her
wells; rod driven pumps, or pumps driven by downhole
electric submersible pump motors.

 ESP pumping 487  ESP’s are operated with Fixed Speed Drives or
Variable Speed Drives.
 Each ESP Company typically provides the ESP
controller that is installed at the surface.
 The automation system must support both types of
drives and each type of controller.

 Hydraulic pumping 497  Hydraulic pumping is little used for gas well
Deliquifcation.
 Chapter 15 discusses the automation information
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needed for surveillance and control of these units.

 Chemical injection 499  Chapter 15 discusses the automation information

needed for surveillance and control of chemical
injection systems.

 Gas-lift 500  Gas-lift of gas wells is primarily focused on adding

enough gas to keep the gas flow rate above critical at
all times.
 The system must determine the amount of gas needed
for critical flow and then control the injection rate to
meet this need.

 Wellhead 509  Chapter 15 discusses the automation information

compression needed for surveillance and control of wellhead
compression systems.

 Heaters 510  Chapter 15 discusses the automation information

needed for surveillance and control of heater systems.

 Cycling 511  Chapter 15 discusses the automation information

needed for surveillance and control of cycling systems.

 Production 512  Chapter 15 discusses the automation information

allocation needed for accurate allocation of gas production which
is measured at a production station and allocate it back
to individual wells.

 Other unique 513  Other applications can include control of gas well
applications production to meet specific needs to increase or
decrease gas production rates to meet delivery
demands.

Automation Issues 513  There are several “soft” issues that must be addressed
for successful automation systems.

 Typical benefits 513  It is necessary to identify the anticipated tangible

benefits that can be measured in economic terms.
 It is equally important to identify intangible benefits
(e.g. safety, environmental protection, system security,
personnel issues) that are as or more important.

 Potential problem 515  There are potential problem areas or “pitfalls’ that must
areas be avoided through careful design of the system.
 Chapter 15 enumerates a number of these.

 Justification 518  The system must be well justified to obtain the buy-in
and support of management and all other “stake
holders.
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 CAPEX 520  Capital expenditures will be required up front on a

project, and over time as equipment must be added,
exchanged, upgraded, etc.

 OPEX 521  Operating costs will persist throughout the life of the
project.

 Design 522  The system design must consider: (1) the people
needed to design, install, operate, and optimize the
system, (2) the corporate project management
processes that must be followed, and (3) the
technology to be used – not too much and not too little.

 Installation 525  Installation of the system, including thorough upfront

testing, is essential.

 Security 526  Security of both the physical equipment in the field and
the data/information produced by the system must be
addressed.

 Staffing 527  At least three teams of people are needed: (1)

Steering Committee, (2) Automation Team, and (3)
Surveillance Team.

 Training 530  Each team must be properly staffed and the people on
the teams must be well trained.
 This is essential over time as team members change.

 Commercial vs. in- 532  Few companies build in-house automation systems.
house  The challenge is to find the best commercial system
and work with the Supplier to meet the needs of the
Operating Company.

Case Histories 533  We can learn from the successes and failures of the
past.

 Success stories 533  Most success stories followed the recommendations in

Chapter 15, and continued to follow them over time.

 Failures 535  Most failures occurred when companies failed to follow

the recommendations.
 Many of the failures occurred not because of
inadequate automation hardware or software, but
failure to take care of the “soft” issues.

 Systems that 537  Some systems have yet to reach their potential.
haven’t reached  This is most often caused by failure to follow the
their potential project plan to fully implement the systems, or again, a
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failure to address all of the “soft” issues.

Summary 538  The value of gas is high; the costs of staff and services
are high; the negative impact of liquid loading is high.
 So, the case for production automation is compelling.

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