Pressurised pumping process succeeds for marginal well operators
15 Jan 2000
A new technique for pumping oil and gas out of `marginal' wells where pressure is low has been proven in field trials in the North Sea. Developed by CALTEC, the oil and gas division of the BHR Group, the process, known as Wellcom, uses the energy of high-pressure wells to extract hydrocarbons from low-pressure wells.
The Wellcom technique is particularly suited to areas where high- and low-pressure wells are close to each other. Gas and oil from a high-pressure well shoots up a pipe into a unit which separates the two phases. The oil then passes through a jet pump, which sucks the oil and gas out of the low-pressure well. The oil and gas streams are then recombined and pumped down a single pipeline to the terminal.
The process will allow oil companies to reopen old wells which had stopped flowing. It also cuts the cost of exploiting new wells; companies can simply `plug in' to existing pipelines and platforms. `The technology is so inexpensive that companies can recover the cost of a Wellcom system in just a few weeks,' claims CALTEC director David Turley.
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