American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2022 - 84

dictable schedules that allow employees
to watch their kids' ball games and cheerleading
competitions, it's much easier to
attract and retain talent, " Basnett acknowledges.
" Because we work in a controlled
environment, we also have stronger
quality control and more opportunities
to improve efficiencies from job to job.
" In the field, it can be challenging to
avoid rework or delays because there are
so many variables that can affect how
quickly and reliably jobs can be performed, "
Basnett contrasts. " When dust
storms come through a site or the temperature
exceeds 115 degrees F for two
weeks straight, even the best welder's
work is going to slip. "
To enable single-point gas lift, an artificial lift technique that combines reliability with
high fluid volumes, Estis Compression has designed and built booster compressors
rated for high pressures. The company mentions that these compressors also excel at
unloading wells after frac hits and supporting enhanced oil recovery pilot projects.
kicked off in 2017 with a Society of Petroleum
Engineers' paper by David Elmer,
Bill Elmer and Larry Harms, Jordan recounts.
" EOG Resources approached us
and asked if we could build a compressor
capable of achieving the necessary injection
pressures, " Jordan details. " The first
deployment happened in early 2017. From
there, HPGL took off. In 2019, we had
more than 500 applications and 300
HPGL compressors built. "
Growth halted in 2020 but has recovered,
Jordan reports. He credits the technique's
growth to its reliability and simplicity.
" HPGL simply injects gas at one
point in the well with nothing but tubing
in the wellbore to lift high volumes. What
is there not to like about that, especially
in crooked, tight holes? "
Enabling HPGL
According to Jordan, HPGL has had
great success in the Permian Basin, the
Mid-Continent and the Bakken. He says
typical applications involve injection pressures
ranging from 1,200 psi to 5,000
psi, with 5,500 as the ceiling.
" Our HPGL booster compressors are
powered by a 145-horsepower engine
that has proven itself in thousands of
lower-pressure environments, " Jordan describes.
" However, the compressor cylinders
have a higher pressure rating. We
also need to use a more robust oil when
pressures exceed 4,500 psi, as well as
higher-rated piping. "
In addition to supporting HPGL, the
high-pressure compressors can help wells
recover from frac hits. " The units are extremely
mobile, so we often get them on
site much faster than a swabbing unit, "
84 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER
Jordan says. " They also unload the wells
quickly. For the simplest jobs, it may
only take six hours. "
Jordan adds that the compressors are
more affordable than unloading a well
with nitrogen or compressed natural gas.
" The monthly rental cost for a compressor
often is less than the cost of using a nitrogen
unit for two days, " he says.
The high-pressure compressors also
have been deployed in enhanced oil recovery
projects. " We are assisting projects in the
Eagle Ford and the Permian, and we are
preparing to work on one in the Williston, "
Jordan details. " The compressors give the
operator a chance to confirm that the EOR
project will succeed before it invests in
buying larger, more efficient compressors.
" We are taking operators' efforts to
improve ESG seriously, " Jordan assures.
" This year, we are introducing electric
versions of our HPGL compressor. We
also are finding other ways to reduce
emissions, such as using instrument air
rather than gas to actuate our dump valves,
minimizing compressor blowdowns and
eliminating crank case gas. "
Modular Facilities
As automation has become more complex
and extensive, getting people with
the right technical skills to install and
program automation systems on site has
become more challenging, says Earl Basnett,
vice president of business development
for Crimson Engineering Inc. In
response, Crimson launched Matrix Modular
Technology to provide factory-built,
fully-automated equipment.
" When we do most of the work in the
Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex on preAccording
to Basnett, modular construction
can reduce time on site by 20%50%
while improving quality and reducing
long-term operating costs. He adds that
the technique cuts the amount of vehicle
traffic to and from the equipment's ultimate
destination, which reduces safety risks
and emissions.
" We use modular construction for
everything from metering systems and
oil well tank batteries to small compressor
stations and separator packages for multiwell
pads, " Basnett reports. " It can also
be applied to larger facilities, such as
cryogenic plants. "
Matthew Bargholz, one of Crimson's
automation engineers, emphasizes that
modular facilities can be much easier to
automate consistently from project to
project. " How much we automate will
depend on the customer's needs, but our
base package is a turnkey solution that
includes everything from transmitters on
the skids, vessels and equipment to a
cloud SCADA system that can integrate
into clients' back-end production accounting
system, " he comments.
The cloud-based SCADA system was
designed to monitor facilities ranging from
a well pad with a single pumpjack to a gas
plant handling 300 million cubic feet of
gas a day, Bargholz says. " The data display
is extremely visual, " he adds. " For example,
when production engineers look at pumpjack
data, they will see a picture of a pumpjack
with real-time data shown in the appropriate
places, including the dynacard and information
from the controller.
" When we deploy the SCADA software,
we integrate it with the customer's
production accounting system and other
tools, " Bargholz continues. " The goal is
to push data to those systems automatically
rather than requiring the operator to manually
import it, which takes time and can
lead to mistakes. "
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American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2022

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