ARTIFICIAL LIFT
Pump Projects is your technical partner and resource for the following methods of Artificial Lift in industries such as Upstream Oil & Gas:
- Jet Pumps
- Gas Lift
- Plunger Lift
JET PUMPS
The jet pump is deployed downhole through the casing string to a depth at which it is immersed in the production fluids in the wellbore. A pump at the surface (see below) moves a pressurized fluid called a power fluid—typically refined oil, water or a mixture of oil and produced water—downhole through tubing to the jet pump, where the fluid flows through a nozzle in the nose of the pump. The nozzle introduces a constriction in the power fluid’s flow path that causes the fluid speed to increase through the nozzle per the venturi effect, a corollary to Bernoulli’s principle that describes the reduction in fluid pressure that results when a fluid flows through a constricted section of pipe.
PLUNGER LIFT
Whether in a gas well, oil well, or gas lift well, the mechanics of a plunger-lift system are the same. The plunger, a length of steel, is dropped through the tubing to the bottom of the well and allowed to travel back to the surface. It provides a piston-like interface between liquids and gas in the wellbore and prevents liquid fallback—a part of the liquid load that effectively is lost because it is left behind. Because the plunger provides a “seal” between the liquid and the gas, a well’s own energy can be used to lift liquids out of the wellbore efficiently.
GAS LIFT
Gas lift is a method of artificial lift that uses an external source of high-pressure gas for supplementing formation gas to lift the well fluids. The principle of gas lift is that gas injected into the tubing reduces the density of the fluids in the tubing, and the bubbles have a “scrubbing” action on the liquids.