American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2017 - 85

Production Technology
mated system monitors and reports production data, and notifies the operator if
there is a potential problem," Morrow
concludes.
Academic Involvement
ALRDC's Dunham points to the Tulsa
University Horizontal Well Artificial Lift
Project as one example of academia involvement in production technology research. The ALRDC-sponsored program
brings more than 15 companies and university researchers into a consortium that
seeks to improve artificial lift equipment
and practices for horizontal wells in shale
plays.
"The consortium has been going for
four years now," he describes. "The university has facilities where it simulates
production in horizontal wells, and uses
that to test the effectiveness of ESPs,
sucker rod pumping, gas lift, chemical
injection, and other technologies."
As operators continue drilling longer
laterals, production technology is evolving
to make those segments more productive,
he offers, with sucker rod pumping one
of the more popular options. He notes
that sucker rods can be installed in deviated
horizontal sections of a well.
"A big choice now is chemical lift, injecting chemicals that lighten the crude
enough to allow it to be produced," Dunham describes. "You can inject chemicals
really anywhere in a well, as long as you
get the chemical down there. Operators
are using capillary tubes and similar equipment to inject chemicals, sometimes even
out to the toe of the well, but certainly
down in the deviated and horizontal parts,
to help reduce fluid density."
Most lifting is done in the well's
vertical or deviated segments, he says.
Operating wells with long horizontal legs
requires moving production to those sections where lifting is effective. "Whether
it is a long horizontal is not so much the
issue," Dunham poses. "It is a matter of
how you get the fluid to flow."
Operators continue to seek new and
better ways to employ varying types of
artificial lift, and ALRDC's workshops
offer an excellent forum for new ideas,
Dunham says. "We always get good ideas
out of those workshops. There is a lot of
focus these days on using various kinds
of drive systems for ESPs. The idea is to
keep people aware of what is happening
in the industry, and aware of new tech-

nologies and new training approaches,"
he offers.
Properly training workers continues
to be a concern for well owners, Dunham
says, noting that capital spent to install
new technology will be ineffective investments if the personnel on site cannot
operate it correctly.
"There now is a focus on training and
developing people, providing the tools
that operators can use to better understand
their wells and artificial lift equipment,
and programs for detecting and solving
problems," Dunham says. "These technologies have been around for a long
time, but I see them continuing to evolve."
Integrated Fracturing Unit
As operators design longer laterals in
their horizontal wells-with requirements
for higher pressures and flow rates, and
continuously operating service equipment-their mechanical equipment has to
be capable of meeting those challenges.
One possible solution is a fully integrated
hydraulic fracturing pump system from
EPIX, a joint venture between Weir Oil
& Gas and Rolls-Royce Power Systems
subsidiary MTU. The EPIX power system
consists of a SPM® QEM 3000 hydraulic
fracturing pump, ZF 8 TX transmission
system from ZF Friedrichshafen Group,
and an MTU Series 4000 engine.
According to EPIX, the Series 4000
offers a power output from 2,250 to 2,600

horsepower with more low-end torque
and improved acceleration, while the ZF
transmission system has a maximum input
torque of 7,744 foot-pounds.
The unit is the first product from
EPIX, announced in May. Douglas
Schwedland, EPIX's chief executive officer, says the company is in the process
of incorporating and plans to begin commercial operations early this year.
"EPIX ultimately will be able to optimize how the components work with
each other," Schwedland describes. "When
the transmission senses certain inputs
from the pump or engine, it is able to
make decisions on the fly. Since we have
access to the development of all three
components, we are able to write codes
that do that logic and system management."
The MTU engine meets U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tier 4 final
emissions standards without additional
control technologies, he points out, which
is a substantial savings in terms of costs,
weight, and overall complexity of the
exhaust design.
In addition to an integrated warranty
for the entire unit, the FracPack system
will lower service costs for users, Schwedland says. With a 3,000-hp pump and
2,600-hp engine, operators will need
fewer pumps on job sites to satisfy their
fracturing requirements. One service location will handle all three components,

A fully integrated hydraulic fracturing pump system from EPIX, a joint venture between
Weir Oil & Gas and Rolls-Royce Power Systems subsidiary MTU, helps operators run
longer laterals in horizontal wells. According to the company, the system consists of a
SPM® QEM 3000 hydraulic fracturing pump, ZF 8 TX transmission system from ZF
Friedrichshafen Group, and an MTU Series 4000 engine.

JANUARY 2017 85

American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2017

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