Benefits of Multiphase Pumping for Oil and Gas Extraction

In the petroleum industry, handling multiphase emulsions (gas, oil, water, and solids) has been not just a production, facility and/or transportation challenge, it is also an economic challenge. The common option is installing separators, compressors, fluid pumps, flare stacks, etc. IJACK has developed an economical multiphase transfer pump that is optimising production, artificial lift systems, and facilities throughout western Canada, and some initial projects in the USA.

Since emulsions are never consistently a homogeneous mixture, but are produced in phases of gas, water, oil, and solids (e.g. sands and paraffins), the XFER is automated to handle these changing phases from 100% fluids to 100% gas continuously with no separation required.

In production applications, the XFER lowers casing, well and flowline pressures simultaneously, producing additional inflow from the formation, as well as allowing lower-pressure wells access to high-pressure pipelines. The lower pressures carry additional benefits such as extending downhole equipment run life, lowering stuffing box pressures, reducing workover frequencies, reducing PCP torque rates, reducing ESP speeds / pump lengths, increasing plunger lift systems' trip rates, and reducing injection pressures and volumes for gas lift systems.

In facility applications, the XFER is installed in a couple of days and pumps the emulsions directly from the wellhead to the battery. Some of the benefits of using XFER's are replacing underutilized facilities where production does not justify the current operating costs, trucking of production fluids, energy inefficient alternatives such as screw pumps and/or eliminating the need for new facilities and venting / flaring of gas.

Actual applications include:

Customer 1

Issues

High group line pressures had stuffing boxes exceeding 500 psi, required high gas volumes to push the fluids to the battery, and had shut-in fluid wells due to pipeline capacity being used by the required gas volumes.

Solution

Installed an XFER on a filed riser to bring down gathering line pressures and push emulsions to the battery.

Results

Lowered gathering line pressures to 130 psi, significantly reduced stuffing box pressures, reduced the need for high gas volumes to push fluids, shut in gas wells, brought fluid wells back online, reduced the risk of stuffing box and pipeline leaks, and the customer is producing more fluids with lower pressures.

Customer 2

Issues

Our customers' plunger pads had wells which were triggering very slowly, and the gas could not access the sales line.

Solution

Replaced the individual well separators with a group separator and installed an XFER between the pad and group separator to lower the line pressure.

Results

Lowered the pad line pressure from 250 psi to 10 psi, plungers tripped more frequently, group line pressure peaks were pulled down faster, all gas accessed the sales line, and gas and fluid production increased.

Customer 3

Issues

Our customer had an 8-pad project in a mountainous area with limited power availability, was trucking the fluids from the first 3 pads which was becoming a challenge due to the access conditions, and they required a solution for future growth of the rest of the planned pads.

Solution

Installed an XFER in series (two stage) system to lower pad pressures and increase discharge pressure for the emulsion to reach the battery over the challenging terrain.

Results

Avoided building a satellite facility, eliminated the trucking of fluids, eliminated venting / flaring, pipeline pressure was reduced from 650psi to 70psi back to the 3 producing pads, and discharge continued at 650psi to overcome terrain obstacles and reach the battery.

Customer 4

Issues

Our customer drilled two free-flowing wells which liquid-loaded and stopped production. They also faced a 160-meter elevation to the battery.

Solution

Installed an XFER to lower the pipeline pressure at the wellhead and discharge the emulsion at the required pressure to reach the battery.

Results

Reduced the line pressure between the XFER and the wellhead from 300psi to 100psi; both wells are producing; and the emulsion is discharging at 350psi to reach the battery.

Contact us for more information.