Plunger lift

A plunger lift is an artificial lift method of deliquifying a natural gas well. A plunger is used to remove contaminants from productive natural gas wells, such as water (in liquid, mist, or ice forms), sand, oil and wax.

The basics of the plunger is to open and close the well shutoff valve at the optimum times, to bring up the plunger and the contaminants and maximize natural gas production. A well without a deliquification technique will stop flowing or slow down and become a non-productive well, long before a properly deliquified well.^[1]

The plunger lift has low energy cost, low environmental impact, low capital investment and low maintenance cost. Modern wellhead controllers offer a variety of criteria to control the plunger. The original controllers were just timers, with fixed open and close cycles.

Measuring the various pressures in the system allows intelligent and reactive control. The pressures often measured are casing, tubing, line, and differential (DP). The other items measured are plunger arrival times, flow rates, temperatures and status of various auxiliary equipment: oil tank level, compressor status.

Open Well Criteria

Plunger Drop Timer - Minimum close time to allow the Plunger to reach the bottom.
Tube - Line Pressure
Casing - Line Pressure
Casing - Tubing Pressure
Load Ratio (Casing-Tubing) / (Casing - Line)
Foss and Gaul Equation^[2]
Tubing Pressure
Casing Pressure
Static Pressure
External Variables

Close Well Criteria

Flow Time
After Flow Timer
Turner/Coleman Flow Rate
Load Ratio
DP (Differential)
Flow Rate
Tubing - Line Pressure
Casing - Tubing Pressure
Casing Pressure
Static Pressure
Tubing Pressure
Line Pressure

Notes

^ "My World@Mail.Ru: Stay in touch with your classmates and friends".
^ Foss, D.L., and Gaul, R.B., "Plunger Lift Performance Criteria with Operating Experience - Ventura Avenue Field", (API Drilling and Production Practice,) 1965.

References

Lea, James F., "Dynamic Analysis of Plunger Lift Operations", (Journal of Petroleum Technology,) Vol. 34, No. 11, pp 2617–2629, Nov. 1982.
State of Oklahoma Margin Wells Handbook (pdf)
Installing Plunger Lift Systems, EPA 2006
Lea, James (2003). Gas Well Deliquification. Gulf Professional Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7506-7724-0.
Guo, Boyun (2007). Petroleum Production Engineering. Amsterdam: Elsevier Gulf Professional Pub. ISBN 978-0-7506-8270-1.
Takacs, Gabor (2005). Gas Lift Manual. Tulsa: PennWell. ISBN 0-87814-805-1.
Medko (2006). Operation of wells on the Medvezhie gas field on the basis of plunger lift at a final stage of the field development. 23rd World Gas Conference.
Сердюков О.М. СЧАСТЛИВОГО ПОЛЕТА! ж.ИЗОБРЕТАТЕЛЬ И РАЦИОНАЛИЗАТОР, 2002 г. 11(635) с.26, [1]
"NOV Mono Plunger Lift Systems Page"
[2]

Patents

Pat #1769637 10/20/1925
Pat #1784096 07/23/1929
Pat #1896232 11/21/1931
Pat #2001012 03/21/1934
Patent SU 171351.Priority 14/11/1963. Bulletin No,16 05/05/1969 [3]^{[permanent dead link]} [4]^{[permanent dead link]}
Pat #4150721 01/11/1978
Pat #5957200 11/18/1997
Pat #6209637 05/14/1999
Pat #6467541 08/01/2000
Pat #7270187 04/29/2003
Patent RU 2214504. Flying valve, its detachable element and the method of wells operation. Priority 30.04.2002. Bulletin No. 29, 2003.
FLYING VALVE FOR A FREE PISTON. Pub. No.: WO/2008/060188 International Application No.: PCT/RU2007/000622 Publication Date: 22.05.2008 International Filing Date: 14.11.2007 [5]

[1] "My World@Mail.Ru: Stay in touch with your classmates and friends".

[2] Foss, D.L., and Gaul, R.B., "Plunger Lift Performance Criteria with Operating Experience - Ventura Avenue Field", (API Drilling and Production Practice,) 1965.

[1]

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