American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2021 - 73

SpecialReport: Artificial Lift Technology
that equipping a 10,000 foot well for rod
lift costs about $200,00, $175,000 more
than putting that well on IGL.
" With IGL, the bellows that open and
close the valve are the only moving downhole
parts, and if they fail, the valve can
be removed and replaced by slickline.
IGL also offers extremely low operating
and maintenance costs, " Logie reports.
" IGL has the potential to increase production
because it produces the well at a
lower flowing bottom hole pressure than
GAPL wells, and places less back pressure
against the depleted reservoir, " he continues.
" Operators further reduce this
back pressure against the formation by
placing a standing valve below the bottom
gas lift valve to prevent downward pressure
on the formation when the IPO valve
opens intermittently. "
To show how much IGL can improve
production, Logie recalls a well in the
SCOOP and STACK that went from 15
barrels of fluid a day to 45 bbl/d, most of
which was oil, after the operator changed
from GAPL to IGL. " A production increase
is never guaranteed, but the cost savings
usually justify a switch without it, " he says.
Logie points out that IGL was first
deployed in 1946. " It is not a new technique,
but it is gaining popularity as operators
become increasingly cost-conscious, "
he assesses. " In many areas, its
affordability and ease of operation make
it the default method of artificial lift to
use after continuous flow gas lift. "
Rod Pump Protector
Jonathan Martin launched Black Mamba
Rod Lift in May 2019 after getting inspiration
for a better rod guide from a playground.
" I saw a spiral slide with a rod
supporting it and came up with the wacky
idea of creating a guide with a helical fin
that wraps around the rod, " Martin recalls.
" The more I tinkered with the design and
experimented with prototypes, the more
excited I became.
" Because the area opposite the fin is
free, the rod can naturally flex. This is a
big advantage over traditional guides,
where bending creates stresses at the
guide's edge that eventually cause the
rod to part, " Martin says. He notes these
stresses can be minimized by using fewer
guides spaced farther apart but cautions
that doing so will increase the chance of
rod-on-tubing wear.
" Our helical guide's long, single-fin
design increases flow area 70% and reduces
turbulence that otherwise would
accelerate corrosion, " Martin adds. " The
fin still affects how fluid flows, but instead
of causing turbulence, it has been engineered
to create vortices that help keep
solids and paraffin in suspension so they
can be lifted out of the wellbore. "
Using only one fin is especially advantageous
in progressive cavity pumping,
where the rod needs to rotate, as it minimizes
the abrasion that occurs when typical guides
rotate against the tubing, Martin comments.
" One question we often get from potential
customers is why this has not been
done before, " Martin says. " We think
that's largely because of the guide's length.
One of our material suppliers tells us that
at 36 inches long, our guide for 3
⁄4
-inch
sucker rods is the longest transfer molded
part it has seen in 100 years. We achieve
that flow length with specific equipment
and tooling design. If we had to use thermoplastic
injection molding, the equipment
would be prohibitively expensive. "
The guide's length gives it a high bearing
surface area, which Martin says reduces
the compressive stresses on the plastic.
" Between the plastic's durability and the
geometric advantages, we expect the guide
to last three-four times longer than traditional,
legacy products, " he calculates.
Martin says the company's first installation
took place in August 2020.
" The operator put it in a challenging well
and expected to have headaches every
three or four months based on comparable
wells, but nine months later, the rods are
still going strong, " he reports.
Rapid Growth
Despite shipping its first products midpandemic
in fall 2020, Martin says Black
Mamba Rod Lift has sold tens of thousands
of rods and guides in the United States
and abroad. " The product is rarely a hard
sell, " he says. " The helical guide just
makes sense. Common sense engineering
and physics validate its advantages, so
once operators see it, they want to try it. "
To make that possible, Martin says
Black Mamba keeps its pricing competitive.
" Our standard guides cost less than many
other premium guides in the market, such
as long guides or high-temperature guides, "
he reports. " Our high-temperature material
can be more expensive, but the helical design's
benefits make up for the extra cost.
Typical investment payback for operators
Black Mamba Rod Lift says its
rod guides use a single-fin, helical
design that minimizes the
risk of rod parts by allowing
the rod to flex as needed. The
helical guides have more erodible
wear area than traditional
designs and other properties
that Black Mamba estimates will
enable them to last three or four
times longer down hole.
is measured in hours instead of months. "
Martin emphasizes that those benefits
go beyond extending rod and tubing
life. " By using a seven-guides-per-rod
configuration, we can centralize and reinforce
the rod string across its entire
length, " he says. " This end-to-end rod
control makes the string's movement so
predictable that engineers can set the
pump into the curve safely to increase
production and fluid intake.
" We are about to debut a pumping system
that should increase production even
more, " he reveals. " It works by using the
weight of the rods to pump fluid on the
downstroke, which is more efficient than
lifting both the rod string and fluid on the
upstroke. Well dependent, this can cut
capital and operating expenses as much
as 40% and enable operators to use smaller
surface pumping units and prime movers. "
Martin points out that downstroke
pumping has been tried before. " In the
past, it introduced rod string reliability
issues by increasing compression and
buckling through negative loading, " he
says. " With Black Mamba controlling
rod buckling and instability, tension-compression
reversing cycles fatigue the
sucker rods less than traditional tensiontension
rod pumping and should extend
rod life, too. "
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JUNE 2021 73
American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2021

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