Effectiveness of Using 80 cm Cyclone Profile at The End of Suction Pipe After Sand Screen for Sand Separation at The Accessories of Tubing Pump

Abstrak

The Oil and Gas Industry is facing huge challenges, especially for mature field. Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) already used to maintain the reservoir pressure, so the crude oil still produced in accordance with its reserves, although artificial lift is needed. The other problems of mature field are sand and scale, mechanical accessories chosen to solve that because it is cheapest way. The data said the 73% of well services problem contributed from sand problem which cause pump stuck, leakage of ball and seat, and pump intake clog since the mud anchor is full of sand on sucker rod pump wells.

The first mechanical accessories to solve the sand problem is using sand screen at the intake as the pump accessories. Based on the evaluation, sand screen in not effective to cure the problem. The sand still breaks through the pump. Additional accessories behind the sand screen are needed for sand separation. A cyclone profile with 80 cm length and 60 angle is pinned at the end of eight-meter suction pipe to separate the sand form production fluid, then the sand collected at three joints of mud anchor located at the end of tubing pump string. To prevent pump stuck, extension plunger and tungsten ball & seat are used.

The installation of these accessories produces good result for overcoming sand problem. The two wells that uses these accessories had longer run life more than six months from before. The other good advantage is when the surface pumping unit at the surface is accidently shut down, the plunger of the pump did not stuck inside the barrel, so the production could continue. With this result, the accessories could prevent the sand from produced into the pump, and it is an effective tool to resolve the sand problem in mature field with less cost.

The installation of 80 cm cyclone profile at the end of the suction pipe on tubing pump string is a practical solution with less cost for mature oil field that encounter sand problem as a common challenge in producing oil.