The Successful Application of 2000 PCP Wells in Daqing Oilfield

Abstract With years of study and experiments, a complete series of Progressive Cavity Pump (PCP) products has been developed. Sets of down-hole pumps for various rates and lifting capacities were developed for water-flooding, polymer-flooding and ASP flooding areas according to the specifics. One of the newest techniques, a hollow rotor PC Pump, has been applied in more than 800 wells. It has proved to be an effective way in removing the wax build-up and reducing operation cost. Another specially designed product was the sucker rod. By strengthening and redesigning the area susceptible to failure, the new sucker rod prolonged the running life of the lifting systems considerably. Also, a new type of drive head with compact structure has been proved to be more convenient in maintenance and more economic than the traditional products. By means of completed monitoring techniques including PC Pump testing equipment and diagnosing software, PC Pump systems can be monitored in real time. This decreased the frequency of failures and improved the benefits effectively. With more than 2000 PCP wells in Daqing Oilfield, the capital and operating costs have reduced dramatically. The PCP system, the most effective lifting method, has great potential for Daqing's Oilfield. Background Daqing Oilfield lies in the center of Songliang basin in North east China. In the beginning stages, commingle water injection and separate zone water injection technologies were used which allowed the reservoir pressure to remain at a high level. Therefore, by natural power the oil field produced for nearly twenty years. To maintain the output, artificial lift technologies were used from 1980s. Beam pumping system was the most popular one. Up to the end of last century, the number of beam pumping systems in Daqing reached over 20,000 wells. There were also about 2,000 ESP wells in operation. In 2000, the average water cut for the whole oilfield reached nearly 90%. Huge operation cost was the most serious problem for beam pumping system. In 2002, the total power consumption of artificial lifting systems was nearly 10 billion kW ·h, which was over one third of the whole oil field's power consumption.