Category:Production

From Eurêka

Production Activities that take place after the successful establishment of means for the removal of oil and/or gas, including such removal, field operations, operation monitoring, maintenance and workover drilling.

Primary production (Primary recovery) Production of oil using only the natural energy of the formation.

Reservoir pressure (formerly, Rock pressure) Force per unit area exerted by a fluid on the face of the reservoir rock, existing at the level of the oil and/or gas productive zone in a well.

1. Draw-down Difference between the static and flowing bottom-hole pressures in a well.
2. Bottom-hole pressure Reservoir pressure at the bottom of the well hole, measured by a bottom hole pressure gauge first developed in the 1930s. Declining pressure is an indicator of the relative amount of depletion in a given well.
   1. Hydrostatic head Pressure exerted at bottom of a column of liquid.
3. Gas-lift well Well in which the flow of oil is caused by pressure of natural gas beneath it or by the pressure caused when natural gas is pumped into it.
   1. Reinjection Non-marketed gases are pumped back to the producing formation to maintain gas lift capability.
4. Cycling plant Oil-field installation to process the condensate from natural gas while returning the dry gas back to the formation to maintain reservoir pressure.
   1. Condensate (formerly, Distillate) Liquid hydrocarbons obtained from “wet” natural gas, usually water-white, straw or bluish in color. In the gaseous state under reservoir conditions, they become liquid in reduced pressure environment as they come up the hole or at the surface.
5. Collapse resistance Minimum external pressure necessary to crush pipe.
   1. Internal yield Minimum internal pressure to burst pipe.

Drive mechanism Action of one fluid pushing another to a well.

1. Primary drive mechanism Predominant drive mechanism if more than one is present.
2. Secondary drive mechanism Drive mechanism that become predominant in later productive life of a reservoir.

Damaging a reservoir (trade term) Reservoirs are extremely temperamental. If too much oil is extracted too quickly or if the wrong types or amounts of secondary efforts are employed, the amount of oil that can be recovered from a field can be greatly reduced.

Wellhead

Wellhead Equipment used to maintain surface control of a well consisting of the casing head, tubing head and Christmas tree. Also refers to various parameters as they exist at the wellhead: wellhead pressure, wellhead price of oil, etc.

1. Christmas tree Wellhead valve assembly at the top of a gas or oil well that consists of an assemblage of valves, outlets, gauges, blowout preventer, etc., providing primary pressure reduction, production rate control and shut-in service.
   1. Flow bean (Cracked valve) Choke valve used to control the flow of oil on a Christmas tree.
2. Downhole safety equipment Valve or other devices installed below the Christmas tree in production wells to prevent blowouts.
   1. Storm chokes Velocity actuated downhole safety devices.
   2. Sand probe Device used to warn of excessive sand erosion in wells containing velocity actuated downhole safety valves.

Production well Well from which the oil is drawn in the production phase.

1. Flush production Yield of oil from a spontaneously flowing well.

Free-water knockout Tank for separating water from oil.

Desalting Removal of mineral salts (mostly chlorides) from crude oils.

Gas/oil ratio Proportion of gas produced relative to oil produced from a reservoir(s) or field(s), usually expressed as cubic feet per barrel of oil.

Injection wells Wells drilled around the edge of a reservoir in order to inject water, and sometimes gas, to maintain pressure by pushing the oil towards the production wells. See secondary recovery.

Stripper wells Oil well in its final stages of production and yielding less than ten barrels per day.

Dead well Well that will not flow, and in order to produce it must be put on the pump.

Rock a well v To agitate a dead well by alternately bleeding and shutting in the pressure on the casing or tubing so that the well will start to flow.

Beam-balanced pumping unit Pump that carries its well-balancing weights on the walking beam on the end opposite the pump rods.

Crank-balanced pumping unit Pump that carries its counterweights on the two cranks that flank the unit’s gear box. The walking beam on this type of unit is short and is not used as a balancing member.

Jerker pump (Rod-line pump) Single-barrel, small volume plunger pump actuated by the to-and-fro motion of a shackle-rod line.

1. Rockers Counterbalance installed on a shackle-rod line, operating a pumping jack, to pull the rod line back after its power stroke.

Pumping jack Oil well pumping unit.

1. Bridle Sling made of steel cable fitted over the ‘horsehead’ on a pumping jack and connected to the pump rod.
2. Pony rods Sucker rod made in short lengths of 2 to 8 feet for use in making up a string of pumping rod to connect the polished rod of a pumping jack.
3. Polished rod Uppermost section of a string of sucker rods, attached to the walking beam of the pumping jack.

Workover Any remedial operation performed on a well after completion.

Capping Closing in a well to prevent the further escape of gas or oil.

1. Plug Blocking of a well’s bore hole with cement or other material or capping it with a metal plate.
   1. Cement slurry Mixture of cement and water in liquid form.
2. Bridge plugs Mechanical devices used to block well bore below them.
3. Ball sealers Rubber balls dropped into a well bore to plug perforations.

Well abandoning Act of abandoning a oil site when the oil reservoir is depleted. The hole is plugged with cement, salvageable equipment is removed, and the site is regraded.