American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2018 - 83

ARTICLE

REPRINTS
Au
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Pa l F n
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86 ld nd
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AUGUST 2018
The "Better Business" Publication Serving the Exploration / Drilling / Production Industry

Hydraulic
Fracturing
Page 62

Kenneth White
Chairman KIOGA
"The orphan well
policy the KCC
follows now is
unworkable, even
from its view."
Page 114

Paul Ulrich
Chairman PAW
"We look at oil prices,
which are healthy, and
at opportunities on
natural gas. All point
to growth in
Wyoming."
Page 123

These plungers are made of tungsten carbide that has been treated to optimize their
surface tribology. According to ST9 Gas + Oil, the hard but smooth plungers cause less
wear and tear on the packing, extending its life.

we can extend the fluid end's life at an
affordable cost."
In designing the fluid end, Buckley
says ST9 has been safety-conscious. "People typically disassemble and reassemble
fluid ends once a week for maintenance,"
he mentions. "To simplify that task, we
have developed a nut and plug combination
that allows technicians to pull plugs without using slide hammers or crank mechanisms. Instead, they use a simple method
of screwing the nut in and out."
This process eliminates the need for
cumbersome tools and protects the technician's fingers, Buckley says. "It is much
faster," he adds. "We think it will cut the
time required to get into the pump by 80
percent."
ST9 has re-engineered its plungers as
well. "Instead of using the nickel-based
hard-surfacing alloy typically found on
most plungers, we only offer plungers
made from tungsten carbide that has been
heat treated in a way that minimizes
porosity and optimizes the surface tribology," Buckley says. "This makes our
plungers smoother than traditional tungsten
carbide plungers, allowing them to benefit
from the material's hardness without tearing into and damaging the packing."
In bench tests, Buckley reports the
company is evaluating another way to
extend packing life. "We are moving the
packing system from the fluid end and
putting it on the plunger itself," he outlines.
"This helps us address three of the most
significant causes of packing failure: inadequate lubrication, erosion from being
bombarded with proppant and manual
torqueing of the packing nut. An intensifier
in the plunger charges the oil and gives it
the energy to wash proppant away from

the packing."
Buckley says he expects to begin field
trials for the new packing system next
year. "This improvement will extend
packing life 50-100 percent," he predicts.
Electric Fleets
In the meantime, Buckley indicates
ST9 is focusing on perfecting electric
frac fleets. "Electric fleets can be powered
with field gas, which can reduce fuel
costs as much 80 percent and cut a typical
spread's daily operating expenses by
$40,000. The fleets also reduce emissions
by 99 percent. At the same time, they
improve safety by eliminating the need
to pump diesel into running trucks and
reducing the number of employees on
site by 45 percent," he explains.
Electric fleets will benefit equipment
longevity and community relations, Buckley argues, explaining that they produce
78 percent less vibration and 69 percent
less noise than diesel fleets.
ST9's electric trailers and pumps
have been designed from the ground
up for electric operations, Buckley
stresses. "Instead of pairing a big, offthe-shelf electric motor with a standard
mechanical pump, we are using multiple
small electric motors that communicate
with each other," he relates. "This enables us to adjust the torque dynamically
and divide the load among the motors
to optimize performance."
That real-time optimization gives the
pump a pure torque curve that minimizes
kinematic bump ripple in the flow going
into the well, Buckley reports. He says
prototypes will be in the field next year,
with production models following in
2020.
r

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AUGUST 2018 83

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American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2018

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