Plunger lift with wellhead compression boosts gas well production

Journal Article · Tue Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 1996 · World Oil

OSTI ID:392562

Phillips, D ^[1]; Listiak, S ^[2]

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1. Conoco, Inc., Farmington, NM (United States)
2. Conoco, Inc., Midland, TX (United States)

As gas wells are produced and reservoir pressures decline, it is often necessary to install wellhead compression to maintain production. As well decline continues, gas rate and velocity in the tubing will decrease to the point at which liquids cannot be lifted out of the wellbore. Even on compression, liquid loading will become a problem and production impairments will result. One remedy to the liquid loading problem is to install a plunger lift system coupled with compression. With new smart controllers, the plunger/compressor combination has been successfully installed on a number of wells. Following is a description of this type of system, and case histories of active installations in the San Juan basin.

• OSTI ID: 392562
• Journal Information: World Oil, Vol. 217, Issue 10; Other Information: PBD: Oct 1996
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
NATURAL GAS WELLS
PRODUCTIVITY
ARTIFICIAL LIFTS
DESIGN
GAS COMPRESSORS
PERFORMANCE
OPERATION