Stripper Well Consortium Offers Opportunities and Technologies to the Stripper Well Industry

Abstract

Abstract As the United States moves to become less energy dependent on foreign sources, the importance of production from domestic stripper oil and gas wells will be much greater than it is today. Currently, stripper oil wells account for 15 percent of total domestic oil production and stripper gas wells account for 8 percent of total dry gas production. The importance of stripper wells is also reflected in that they represent 77 percent and 63 percent of the country's total oil and gas well populations respectively. Therefore, developing inexpensive technologies will be key in keeping these wells productive and helping the nation meet its energy demand. In an effort to help maintain the production from stripper wells, the Department of Energy provides funding to the Stripper Well Consortium (SWC) to develop and demonstrate technologies that will improve the production performance of stripper wells. The SWC was established in 2000 and has co-funded over 60 projects since its inception. The SWC is an industry-driven organization and all projects are selected by a seven-member Executive Council elected for member organizations. Several projects have been completed and are now being offered commercially. This paper will focus on the operation of and the opportunities offered by the SWC, as well as highlighting a few of the successful projects such as the Gas Operated Automatic Lift (GOAL) PetroPump, the Vortex flow tools, the hydraulic diaphragm electrical submersible pump, and the new novel Weatherbee pump/compressor. Background The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) defines stripper wells as wells producing 10 (or less) barrels of oil per day and no more than 60 Mcf per day of natural gas.[1] According to the IOGCC's 2004 Annual Report, more than 390,000 stripper oil wells and 261,000 stripper gas wells were operated during 2003 in 29 states. These totals change each year as wells are plugged and abandoned and other wells drop to stripper well status. In 2003, over 3,800 stripper gas wells and 14,300 stripper oil wells were plugged and abandoned. Production volumes, as reported by the IOGCC, were 314 million barrels and 1.5 trillion cubic feet. These volumes are up appreciably from the 24 percent (oil) and 8 percent (natural gas) reported just five years earlier. Overall, the stripper oil well production rate averaged slightly more than 2 barrels of oil per day (bbl/d) while natural gas wells averaged just over 15 Mcf/d. One fact to consider when deciding on what should be done with a stripper well is that once stripper wells are plugged and abandoned, the costs to re-access the reserves are prohibitive, and the energy resources may be lost forever. And finally the fact that nearly all wells will at some time during their life decline to stripper status adds to the importance. Stripper wells are owned and operated primarily by small companies in communities far from major cities, and provide a significant economic benefit to those communities. The IOGCC estimates that for every $1 of stripper oil or gas production, $1.01734 of economic activity is created. Also, about 10 jobs are dependent on each million dollars of stripper production. Introduction Due to the relatively mature nature of U.S. crude oil and conventional natural gas resources, the country is fairly unique in that much of its [domestic] supplies are produced by low volume wells. The majority of these wells are owned, maintained, and produced by independent operators as opposed to large, integrated E&P firms, which operate globally. Taken individually, marginal wells are relatively insignificant. Taken in concert however, they account for a large proportion of the jobs and the corresponding economic growth associated with the petroleum industry in this country. Still another reason these wells are so important is that they serve as access to much of the remaining oil and natural gas resource. The potential for advanced technologies to enhance the recovery of residual and bypassed crude oil, and natural gas in discovered reservoirs remains to this day. If these wells are shut-in, and subsequently plugged and abandoned, it becomes much more unlikely these remaining reserves will ever be produced due to the [significant] costs associated with drilling, completing, and equipping new wells.