American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2017 - 102

SpecialReport: Artificial Lift Technology
to bring to the marketplace, Habben
relates. In addition to new rod rotator designs, he says the company seeks to mitigate issues with well misalignment. He
adds the products will help operators mitigate wear associated with misalignment
of a pumping unit, or that results from a
crooked hole.

Rod rotators ensure even wear
patterns for rod strings, and
the family of rod rotators from
Wellhead Systems Inc. offers a
new one-way bearing design,
which the company says is
more conducive in characteristic of the rotational torque with
horizontal and deviated wells.
The product line has sizes appropriate for a range of string
weights, WSI adds.

the design, the Hill City, Ks.-based company has introduced a family of rod rotators, with sizes appropriate for a range of
string weights.
Production BOPs are another development area, he says, particularly the
company's BOP rebuild and recertification
program. There is a growing need for
BOPs capable of handling the higherpressure fracture mitigation conditions
in shale plays, according to Habben. WSI
offers BOPs for pressures as high as
10,000 psi, with all of its units manufactured in the United States.
For years, most U.S. onshore wells
were relatively shallow with low pressures, typically 1,500 psi or less, he estimates. As wells went deeper and horizontal lengths increased, pressures increased and BOPs needed to became
stronger and more complex. He says
the more complex units became too
costly for operators to simply replace
when required.
"As pressures have increased in production, the requests to rebuild and rework
BOPs increased beyond routine field
maintenance because of the expense of
replacing them," Habben points out. "By
sending those higher-end products back
to the WSI factory, the company rebuilds
and recertifies them. This is a factory rebuild, with no third-party involvement.
The factory does the refurbishment and
recertifies the units."
A BOP's length of time in service depends on a range of factors, Habben
details, including how often a well is
running, if it uses a timer, and how often

the operator enters the well for pulling
activities. "The more times the well is
pulled, the more times the BOP has to be
actuated. That is a moving target, and refurbishment is on a well-to-well basis. In
most instances, the BOP will, on average,
last 18 months or longer before any
service outside of routine maintenance
would be required under the scenarios,"
he says.
WSI has additional higher-end, higher-pressure product offerings it is planning

102 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

The slower travel time of the new
366-inch stroke pumping unit
from Liberty Lift Solutions LLC
provides more complete ﬁllage
and higher volumetric efficiency,
the company says. Liberty Lift
adds the units are well suited to
work in deviated deep, high-volume wells.

Long-Stroke Lifting
A new 366-inch stroke pumping unit
from Liberty Lift Solutions LLC delivers
fewer cycles at slower speeds and with
higher volumes than conventional and
enhanced geometry pumping units, the
company says.
Liberty Lift's XL 366 unit uses the
rod pump's slower travel time to provide
more complete fillage and higher volumetric efficiency, Liberty Lift points out.
It adds the units are well suited to work
in deviated, deep, high-volume wells,
with optimized production provided by
variable pump speeds and pump fillage
rates while the decrease in pump cycles
reduces rod problems, tubing issues and
workover frequency.
The units come with standard features
that include Unit Sentry operation monitoring, a wireless load cell, hydraulic
rollback system, vibration detection device
and upper proximity switch, describes
Trevor Evans, the company's product
line manager for XL Long Stroke pumping
units. He adds the units incorporate an

American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2017

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