American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2023 - 93

SpecialReport: Artificial Lift Technology
inventory that would benefit from one, "
he assesses.
Pneumatic Pump
When Gary J. Sommese was asked to
lead development of an air-powered pump
for water wells in Bangladesh, he recalls
jumping at the opportunity. The team created
a low-cost pump that could bring water to
the surface or move it over a mountain, as
well as an air-generating windmill. " The
windmill worked at speeds as low as seven
miles an hour, and we envisioned storing
air in propane tanks to pump water even on
windless days, " he says.
After the project stalled, Sommese
began selling the pump for other uses. A
few years after its invention, he had the
good fortune to meet someone in Morris,
Ok., who asked if the pump could be repurposed
to lift oil.
" My company, Air Lift Technology,
recently received a letter from an operator
in Texas who has been using the pump
on 65 oil wells, " he reports. " Before
adopting the pump, the operator had to
shut in the wells an average of every 10
months because of tubing holes. Today,
those wells have gone four years without
any maintenance. "
To explain the pump's reliability,
Sommese points out that it is made from
316 stainless steel and has only one
moving part, a float switch inside the
pump. " When the pump is full of fluid,
this float switch rises, shutting the exhaust
port and opening the air-in pin. As air
enters the pump, it pushes the fluid to
the bottom into a pick-up tube, which
takes the fluid through a check valve to
the next pump, or if the well is shallow,
the surface. "
Three stands of polyethylene pipe connect
each stage: a red pipe that brings in
air, a blue pipe that allows air to return to
the surface, and a black pipe that transports
the fluid, Sommese describes. " All the
air that goes into the pump to displace
the fluid vents back out, so none gets
mixed with the formation, " he assures.
" Because everything is self-contained,
the system does not care if the casing has
holes or the well is crooked.
" One of the best things about the
pump is that it is self-regulating, " he continues.
" Until the bottom stage is completely
full of fluid, the pump is in standby
mode and does not waste any air. Since
the pump only moves fluid when it needs
to, there is no need to install a time clock
or try to guess how frequently a pumpjack
Air Lift Technology describes its
pneumatic pump as a low-cost
way to boost production from
stripper wells, including ones
with holes in the casing or
crooked sections. Since it is
made from stainless steel, only
contains one moving part, and
automatically adjusts to the
well's production, the pump requires
almost no maintenance
or attention.
should turn on. Almost every operator
who installs the pump sees production
increase 10%-30%. "
How much fluid the system can move
depends on depth. " In our deepest well,
which is at 1,850 feet, we move 125
barrels a day. In Oil City, La., we have a
shallower pump moving 300 barrels of
fluid, " he illustrates.
Sommese describes pump installation
as easy. An oil field winch truck with a
quarter-inch stainless steel cable lowers
the stages into the well, with each stage
about 250 feet apart. The air compressors
can be powered by electric motors, or if
the well is off grid, natural gas. The pump
runs at 125 psi, low enough that Sommese
says one of his Texas customers manages
30 wells with a single compressor.
The payback period varies with production,
Sommese notes. " For customers
in Pennsylvania who make six barrels a
day of straight oil, the system pays for
itself in a few months. For the ones in Oil
City, La., that move 300 barrels a day to
get a half a barrel of oil, it's 16-18 months. "
Addressing Methane
Instead of mobilizing the fluid with
air, the pump can be set up to use methane,
Sommese reports. " We are doing that on
federal land in Osage County, Ok., " he
says. " The system reuses the same gas
over and over, so once it is charged, it
does not take any production. "
As a closed-loop system, the pump
does not allow any methane to escape at
the well site, Sommese says. " When we
mentioned that we had achieved zero
emissions at a meeting with the Osage
Mineral Council, some professors from
the University of Tulsa's petroleum engineering
department asked if they could
get involved. We love working with them, "
he says.
" They have set up a test tower and are
studying how to increase the pump's
depth, " he shares. " In applications where
we use gas from the well rather than air,
we plan to periodically inject gas into
the fluid pipe to provide extra lift. We
think that will let us double the space between
stages to 500 feet, which should
reduce costs, and increase the system's
maximum depth to 4,000 feet. "
The pump already is sufficiently economic
that Sommese says a few customers
are taking ownership of abandoned
wells and installing the pump to
revive them. For example, NovaTech
Energy (which he helped found and
serves as chief technology officer) has
brought several wells back on line in
Louisiana. Another operator is partnering
with NovaTech to do so in Texas,
Sommese relates.
" It takes research to make sure the
abandoned well can still produce, " he
allows. " When it can, installing the
pump is a true win. For a cost comparable
to a plugging operation, we can stop
the well from venting methane into the
atmosphere while bringing it back into
service. "
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JUNE 2023 93
American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2023

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