Accurate Load & Position Measurement Is Critical to Quality Dynamometer Analysis
Analysis and control of sucker rod pumped (SRP) wells has changed drastically over the past 30+ years. Advanced diagnostic tools first started appearing as desktop applications. Eventually these tools shifted to the wellsite in the form of rod pump controllers to provide more accurate control of a rod pump system in real-time. All of these tools depend on a dynamometer card in order to properly analyze and control a rod pump system. However, the inputs to the dynamometer card are often of questionable accuracy. A poor quality dynamometer card can lead to improper control of the rod pump system. The accuracy of calculations that depend on the dynamometer data such as rod stress, gearbox torque, structure loading, and rod stress will also be reduced. This presentation will discuss the variety of instruments used to capture the inputs to a dynamometer card (polished rod load and position), their strengths and weaknesses, how to recognize errors in the input data, and how to correct them.

The one idea I would like members to take away from this lecture is how common these measurement errors are and how to recognize and correct them to improve the operation of their rod pumped wells