PETE 409: Artificial Lift
3 credits
Three 50-minute lectures per week
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
Semester 161 (Fall 2016)
Instructor
Rahul Gajbhiye
Department of Petroleum Engineering
INTRODUCTION
Course Information and Policies
General Information
Instructor:
Name :Rahul Gajbhiye
Office :03-219-2
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel. : 013-860 (2511)
Lectures:
PETE-409 (01): 8:00 – 8:50 (UTR)
Location: 6-165
Office Hours: TBD
General Information
Books:
Volumes of Technology of Artificial
Lift Method By Kermit Brown
Production System Analysis By M. J.
Economides
Petroleum Production Engineering By
Guo and Ghalambhor
General Information
General Information
Reference Books:
Brown, Kermit E. (1980). The Technology of Artificial Lift Methods, Volumes 1, 2a
and 2b. Tulsa, OK: PennWell Publishing Co.
Brown, Kermit E. (1982). “Overview of Artificial Lift Systems.” Journal of
Petroleum Technology, Vol. 34, No. 10. Richardson, TX: Society of Petroleum
Engineers.
Clegg, J.D., Bucaram, S.M. and Hein, N.W. Jr. (1993). “Recommendations and
Comparisons for Selecting Artificial Lift Methods.” Journal of Petroleum
Technology (December), p. 1128. Richardson, TX: Society of Petroleum Engineers.
Evaluation Components
Method of Evaluation:
Attendance and Participation: 6%
Homework assignments: 10%
Quizzes: 06%
Field Visit: 03%
Term project:10%
Exam 1: 20%
Exam 2: 20%
Final exam: 25%
Total: 100%
Prerequisite
Prerequisite: Senior Standing
Background in:PETE205: Petroleum Fluid Properties
Familiarity with: Production system and
Reservoir Engineering
Software that are used in calculations, excel
and visual-basic will be of great use. Knowledge
of PIPESIM.
Course Policies
Academic Integrity:
No Collaboration is allowed in doing HWs, you must present your
own work!
Make sure you understand Plagiarism:
“the practice of claiming or implying original authorship of (or
incorporating material from) someone else's written or creative work, in
whole or in part, into one's own without adequate acknowledgement”.
Copyright:
“All the material generated in the course are copyrighted.”
Prior permission from the instructor is needed for copying or
distributing the course material.
Course Contents
Topics No. of Lec.
Introduction 1
Basics of Artificial Lift: Analysis and Applications 2
Artificial Lift Methods 3
Rod Pumps 3
Sucker Rod Pumps 6
Progressive Cavity Pumps 3
Downhole Pumps 6
Gas Lift 8
Plunger Lift 6
Selection of Artificial Lift Methods 3
Project and Exam 4
Course Contents
Why do you need artificial Lift?
Well/Reservoir Pressure declines with time/production-
Primary Recovery
Secondary Recovery
Tertiary Recovery
Production rates needs to be maintained Economics
Keep Production Economics not important,
keep producing well
Why do you need artificial Lift?
Operators Priority increase production
and decrease cost
How to achieve it:
Proper Planning Prevent Poor Performance
Artificial lift is one of the methods used to address
production requirements in order to improve ultimate
recovery for a field or well. However, artificial lift systems
are wide and varied, and the key is to not necessarily
choose the easiest, but to select the most appropriate method.
Why do you need artificial Lift?
There are multiple ways to increase field and or well
productivity.
These include:
Artificial lift
Waterflooding
Chemical injection
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR)
IPR
A well never actually attains its absolute flow potential, because in
order for it to flow, Pwf must exceed the backpressure that the
producing fluid exerts on the formation as it moves through the
production system. This backpressure or bottomhole pressure has the
following components:
• Hydrostatic pressure of the producing fluid column
• Friction pressure caused by fluid movement through
the tubing, wellhead and surface equipment
• Kinetic or potential losses due to diameter restrictions,
pipe bends or elevation changes.
Artificial Lift
Artificial lift is a means of overcoming bottomhole pressure so that
a well can produce at some desired rate, either by injecting gas into
the producing fluid column to reduce its hydrostatic pressure, or
using a downhole pump to provide additional lift pressure downhole.
We tend to associate artificial lift with mature, depleted fields, where
Pavg has declined such that the reservoir can no longer produce under
its natural energy. But these methods are also used in younger fields
to increase production rates and improve project economics.
