RIASSUNTO
Overview
Every day in the oil and gas industry, cutting-edge technology is driven—sometimes inch by inch and occasionally in great leaps forward. Commitments are taken to make the seemingly impossible, possible, to provide solutions to the challenges of tomorrow. Advanced technology is used, not for its own sake, but to find practical solutions that enhance safety, are user friendly, are well engineered, and enable better recovery. Therefore, the primary endeavors in any upstream environment are to fully perceive the application needs of wells and thereafter provide innovative and reliable solutions that withstand the test of time and cost, and to continue to pursue improvements in quality without compromising safety.
Here, solution means integrated resources; integrated resources means people, process and technology. The target is to make the integrated resources a successful collaboration between these three, the scale of measuring how successful this solution is judged only by comparing it to a similar solution of the same environment and applications needs.
The solution discussed in this paper is a ""flushby??—a state-of-the-art technology adaption that requires fewer operating people and has shorter work process with less nonproductive time (NPT) compared to alternatives, such as a service workover rig, for the same applications.
The possibilities and value potential associated with integrated resources are substantial, and implementation is therefore identified by the industry as a strategic tool to ensure a sustainable development. Thus, integrated resources yield accelerated and increased production at reduced operating costs and with uncompromised high safety levels and high standards of environmental stewardship.
The oil and gas industry, like any other industry, is affected by the global market economic stability and oil prices. Hence, during exigent economic times, a producer's concern is to minimize operating costs. In contrast, during prosperous periods, producers focus on optimizing the operating time to maximize recovery. Flushbys can play a vital positive role in both economic periods.
Introduction
The flushby1 is an innovative, highly mobile and efficient unit for servicing existing wells of artificial-lift nature. The unit (Fig. 1) consists of a fluid tank, a triplex pump, a small derrick-and-hoist assembly, with tools and safety equipment including rod tongs and blowout preventer (BOP), all mounted on one truck. The integration of the service mechanisms creates the unique ability to perform several servicing tasks. Moreover, flushby servicing capabilities expand if the unit is deployed in collaboration with other service units and/or supporting equipment and tools.
Flushbys were first introduced to the oil and gas industry in Canada during the 1980s. The first generations of flushbys were designed for the artificial-lift segment; specifically only for the progressive cavity pump (PCP) applications in which sand levels in wellbores become problematic. Flushbys were called to lift up on the rods and flush water or oil past the rotor and through the stator to clear the pump of sand. In a brief period of time, both applications and area of operations have expanded. The presence of flushbys spread from Canada to South America, where heavy-oil operators also found benefit in the efficiency of the flushby, then continued to spread into the rest of North America and, now, globally.
Configuration
Both at surface and downhole, the flushby can be stand-alone equipment on the job to service PCP systems and reciprocating-rod-pump (RRP) systems. In addition, the flushby can be combined with other equipment, such as a coiledtubing unit (CTU) for stimulation purposes and a Mobile Gripper™ (MG™) automated hydraulic injector for continuous-rod applications. Flushbys are sometimes customized and manufactured with a built-in injector (integral gripper unit) for continuous-rod applications.