SPE Chapter Meeting
Lunch & Lecture – February 13
Please join us for lunch and a talk led by SPE Four Corners member David Simpson.
Who: Mr. David Simpson (MuleShoe Engineering) will be presenting about wellbore gas-liquid separation.
When: Wednesday, 13 February 2013
11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Where: San Juan College, Henderson Hall Room 9012
4601 College Blvd. Farmington, NM
Cost: $20 with online RSVP, $25 at the door
Please RSVP through the event at the Four Corners Section website no later than NOON (12:00 pm) on Monday, 11 February. Any RSVP made apart from the SPE website will be charged $25 at the door.
Title: Wellbore Gas/Liquid Separation
Abstract:
Field observations have shown for many years that on pumping wells it is very common for the gas flowing up the tubing/casing annulus to be free of liquid. This has been especially noticeable when the downhole pump was directed to an on-site tank or to a water gathering system. Many operators have interpreted this observation to imply that the annular space is acting as a separator--a very long skinny separator that has fairly poor separation efficiency per unit length, but that has a lot of unit lengths. This paper evaluates some of the critical flow models to determine the flow rates that would allow a well to flow to sales without an on-site separator.
The other side of the coin is the gas that flows through the pump. Every pump allows some amount of gas to flow with the pumped liquid, but historically producers have had to accept this “pumped gas” as a necessary evil and live with very high water-gathering pressure, excessive gas in produced water tanks, and lost revenue. This paper concludes with a discussion of a technique to allow the power of the downhole pump to recover pumped gas for sale.
About the Speaker:
David Simpson has 32 years experience in Oil & Gas and is currently the Proprietor and Principal Engineer of MuleShoe Engineering. Based in the San Juan Basin of Northern New Mexico, MuleShoe Engineering addresses issues in Coalbed Methane, Low Pressure Operations, Gas Compression, Gas Measurement, Field Construction, Gas Well Deliquification, and Produced Water Management. Prior to forming MuleShoe Engineering, Mr. Simpson was a Facilities Engineer for Amoco and BP for 23 years. A Professional Engineer with his Master’s degree, David has had numerous articles published in professional journals, has contributed a chapter on CBM to the 2nd edition of Gas Well Deliquification, by Dr. James Lea, et al. He is a regular contributor to various conferences on Deliquification, CBM, and Low Pressure Operations. He holds a BSIM from the University of Arkansas and an MSME from University of Colorado.