| Artificial Lift Energy Optimization Consortium (ALEOC) was formed by eleven oil companies operating in the Permian Basin with the primary goal of improving oil field operations through sharing experiences. Beam pumping system received special attention because it is the most widely used artificial lift method in the Permian Basin as well as in the world. The combined effort to optimize beam pumping system calls for the creation of a central database, which will hold beam pump related data from diverse sources and will offer ways to analyze the data to obtain valuable insight about the nature, magnitude and trend of beam pump failure.; The database mentioned above has been created as part of this work. The database combines beam pump failure data from about 25,000 wells owned by different companies into a single, uniform and consistent format. Moreover, two front-end computer applications have been developed to interact with the database, to run queries, and to make plots form the query results. One application is designed for desktop, while the other one is designed for the Internet. Both applications calculate failure frequencies of pump, rod, and tubing, and summarize the results in various ways. Thus the database and the front-end applications together provide a powerful means for analyzing beam pump failure data.; Much useful information can be gathered from the database, such as the most vulnerable component in the system, the best and the worst performers, and the most troublesome operating area. Such information can be used for benchmarking performance, identifying best design/operational practices, design modification, and long term production planning. Results from data analysis show that the pump has the highest probability to fail in a beam pumping system, followed by the rod string and the tubing string. The overall failure in the Permian Basin shows a general decline with time. |
