Page 10 - A Primer of Oilwell Service and Workover Completion
P. 10
ARTIFICIAL LIFT
Petroleum Extension-The University of Texas at Austin
ARTIFICIAL LIFT
fter tubing has been run in, It sends an up-and-down motion, usually to a walking beam, and
A the packer set, and the well called recipro cating action, to a hangs down inside the tubing.
perforated, hydrocarbons usually string of rods called sucker rods. At the end of the string, near the
flow to the surface immediately Sucker rods are solid, high-strength bottom of the well, is a sucker
or after a crew swabs the well. steel (or sometimes fiberglass) rod pump. The walking beam’s
When pressure from natural rods connected together. The top reciprocating action moves the
reservoir drive falls to the point of a sucker rod string is attached rod string up and down to oper-
where a well cannot produce on to the front of a pumping unit, ate the pump.
its own, however, an artificial
method of lifting the hydrocar-
bons is necessary. Artificial lift
WALKING BEAM
is most commonly provided by
some sort of pump or a method
that involves injecting gas into
the well.
BRIDLE
BEAM PUMPING
POLISHED
By far the most common ROD
method of artificially pumping
oil from the formation to the
surface in land-based wells is
beam pumping. A beam pumping
unit sits on the surface (fig. .).
STUFFING BOX
Figure .. The beam pumping unit is a familiar sight in oil country.
