Use of Gas Lifts in the Mid-Continent Field

Abstract

For some time it has been more or less recognized within the industry that ascientific control of flowing wells would result in increased production and agreater ultimate recovery of oil. About two years ago it was proposed by thewriter that this control should follow principles worked out by him whilehandling large air-lift operations. In the case of wells that had ceased toflow where a large quantity of liquid was present, the use of these principleswould result in a large increase of production by using compressed air or gasto flow the well; in the case of a well flowing naturally it would take theform of controlling the gas associated with the oil, resulting either inimmediate increase of production or in a reduction of the gas consumed perbarrel of oil, and in both cases would result in a greater ultimate recoveryfrom the sand. The Roxana Petroleum Corp., appreciating the advantages to be obtained by ascientific application of the principles of the air lift to oil wells, recentlyengaged, for a limited time, the services of the writer to work out some of theproblems involved. The work was carried out at Braman, Garber and Tonkawa inOklahoma, and at Oxford in Kansas. Following some suggestions of the writer awell was also equipped by the Roxana company at Smackover by A.S. Feild. Increased Production by Application of Air Lift The results of the use of this method were, as a whole, quite satisfactory, in so far as it was possible to carry out these ideas in a limited time. Atotal of 14 wells produced 6590 bbl. before installation of the air lift and13,847 bbl. afterward, thus giving an increase of 110 per cent. The range ofincrease was from 5 to about 400 per cent where conditions were favorable forthe use of the air lift, indicating that in many cases wells would yield agreater production of oil if the fluid were removed as rapidly as it enters thewell. Most of this increase was made on wells already provided with the usualtype of gas lift. In bringing about this change in operating conditions it was arranged to removeall back-pressures wherever possible.