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Abdalla R, Ela El, Abu M, El-Banbi A (2020) Identification of downhole conditions in sucker rod pumped wells using deep neural networks and genetic algorithms (includes associated discussion). SPE Prod Oper 35:435–447. https://doi.org/10.2118/200494-PA

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Del Pino, Jessica , Garzon, David , Nuñez, Walter , Gómez, Juan , Renteria, Daniel , and Dayana Sarmiento. "Sucker rod pump downhole valve selection for wells with high sand production: laboratory test results." Paper presented at the SPE Artificial Lift Conference and Exhibition - Americas, Virtual, November 2020. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/201156-MS

Di T. et al., "Enhanced sucker rod pumping model: a powerful tool for optimizing production, efficiency and reliability." Paper presented at the SPE Middle East Artificial Lift Conference and Exhibition, Manama, Bahrain, November 2018. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/192485-MS

Diaz, Francisco Guillermo, Toscano, Rita Genoveva, Pereyra, Matias, and Jose Manuel Pereiras. "New sucker-rod connection designed for high-load applications." Paper presented at the SPE Production and Operations Symposium, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, April 2009. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/120627-MS

Dottore, E. et al., "Use of self-lubricated plungers in sucker-rod pumps producing oil from wells in North Santa Cruz." Paper presented at the Latin American & Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference, Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 2007. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/107267-MS

Dove, J., and Z. D. Smith. "Using sucker rod pump repair data to optimize rod lift design." Paper presented at the SPE North America Artificial Lift Conference and Exhibition, The Woodlands, Texas, USA, October 2016. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/181211-MS

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Guo, Boyun, Zhang, Morgan, and Jin Feng. "Use of magnetic clutch to improve performance of sucker rod pumps." Paper presented at the SPE Western Regional/AAPG Pacific Section Joint Meeting, Anchorage, Alaska, May 2002. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/76771-MS

Guo, Boyun, Zhang, Morgan, and Jin Feng. "Field performance of clutched sucker rod pumping systems." Paper presented at the SPE Production and Operations Symposium, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, March 2003. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/80885-MS

Jackson, Mike, Gonzalez, Marisol, Zhou, Shelley, Palacios, Carlos A., Hernandez, Thais M., and Danielli Quintero. "Screening corrosion inhibitors using rce for different sucker rod grades for wells containing CO2 - Laboratory and field results." Paper presented at the CORROSION 2003, San Diego, California, March 2003.

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Jalikop, Shreyas V., Scheichl, Bernhard , Eder, Stefan J., and Stefan Hönig. "Computational fluid dynamics model to improve sucker rod pump operating mode." Paper presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Virtual, October 2020. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/201285-MS

Jennings, James W., "The design of sucker rod pump systems." Paper presented at the SPE Centennial Symposium at New Mexico Tech, Socorro, New Mexico, October 1989. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/20152-MS

Jiang M, Cheng T, Dong K, Liu J, Zhang H (2020) An efficient downhole oil/water-separation system with sucker-rod pump. SPE Prod Oper 35:522–536. https://doi.org/10.2118/201234-PA

Khadav, Sandeep , Kumar, Rakesh , Kumar, Prakash , Kumar, Vivek , Deo, Aniket , Kumar, Piyush , and Sanjeev Kumar. "New solutions for installation of sucker rod pumps in marginal field." Paper presented at the SPE Middle East Artificial Lift Conference and Exhibition, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain, November 2016. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/184202-MS

Kitapov, I. and Gilfanov, R. "Determination of operating efficiency of sucker-rod pumping units of different design in horizontal wells." Paper presented at the SPE Russian Petroleum Technology Conference, Moscow, Russia, October 2018. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/191543-18RPTC-MS

Langbauer, C. and Antretter, T., "Finite element based optimization and improvement of the sucker rod pumping system." Paper presented at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference, Abu Dhabi, UAE, November 2017. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/188249-MS

Langbauer Clemens, Fruhwirth Rudolf Konrad, Volker Lukas (2021) Sucker rod antibuckling system: development and field application. SPE Prod Oper 36:327–342. https://doi.org/10.2118/205352-PA

Langbauer C, Hartl M, Gall S, Volker L, Decker C, Koller L, Hönig S (2020) Development and efficiency testing of sucker rod pump downhole desanders. SPE Prod Oper 35:406–421. https://doi.org/10.2118/200478-PA

Lekia SDL, Evans RD (1995) A coupled rod and fluid dynamic model for predicting the behavior of sucker-rod pumping systems. SPE Prod Fac 10:26–33. https://doi.org/10.2118/21664-PA

De Lima, Fábio Soares, De Souza, Carlos Francisco, and José Paulino Neto. "Installation of a sucker rod pumping system over a failed electrical submersible pumping system to recover production using rigless intervention." Paper presented at the SPE Artificial Lift Conference and Exhibition - Americas, Virtual, November 2020. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/201137-MS

Liu, Y. et al., "New tubingless sucker rod pump system in slim holes." Paper presented at the Production and Operations Symposium, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.A., March 2007. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/106568-MS

Mahoney, M. "Pitfalls in performance-data tracking of sucker-rod pumped wells." Paper presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio, Texas, USA, September 2006. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/101845-MS

Martin, Richard L. "Minimizing wear-accelerated corrosion in sucker rod pumped oilwells with corrosion inhibitors." Paper presented at the CORROSION 2012, Salt Lake City, Utah, March 2012

McCafferty, J.F., "Importance of compression ratio calculations in designing sucker rod pump installations." Paper presented at the SPE Production Operations Symposium, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, March 1993. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/25418-MS

McCaslin KP (1988) A study of the methods for preventing rod-wear tubing leaks in sucker-rod pumping wells. SPE Prod Eng 3:615–618. https://doi.org/10.2118/16198-PA

Mo, Y., and J. Xu. "Design and optimization for sucker rod pumping system in deviated wells." Paper presented at the SPE/AAPG Western Regional Meeting, Long Beach, California, June 2000. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/62826-MS

Murtha, T.P. et al., "New high-performance field-installed sucker rod guides." Paper presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Dallas, Texas, September 1987. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/16921-MS

Nickell, Ian Alton. "Surface diagnostics and analysis in optimization technologies for sucker rod pump lifted oil and gas wells." Paper presented at the SPE Artificial Lift Conference and Exhibition - Americas, Virtual, November 2020. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/201155-MS

Oliva GB, Galvão HL, Silva RE, Costa RO, Carratore PR, Maitelli AL, Maitelli CW (2020) Development of a control strategy for a smart sucker rod pump. SPE Prod Oper 35:481–496. https://doi.org/10.2118/201103-PA

Palka, Krzysztof, and Jaroslaw Czyz. "Optimizing downhole fluid production of sucker rod pumps using variable motor speed." Paper presented at the SPE Western Regional and Pacific Section AAPG Joint Meeting, Bakersfield, California, USA, March 2008. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/113186-MS

Palka K, Jaroslaw C (2009) Optimizing downhole fluid production of sucker-rod pumps with variable motor speed. SPE Prod Oper 24:346–352. https://doi.org/10.2118/113186-PA

Parekh, R., and Desai, K. "Coiled tubing as a sucker rod as well as production string in dual zone completion." Paper presented at the SPE Middle East Oil and Gas Show and Conference, Manama, Bahrain, March 2013. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/164316-MS

Peng, Yi "Artificial intelligence applied in sucker rod pumping wells: intelligent dynamometer card generation, diagnosis, and failure detection using deep neural networks." Paper presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, September 2019. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/196159-MS

Peng, Y. et al., "Deep autoencoder-derived features applied in virtual flow metering for sucker-rod pumping wells." Paper presented at the SPE/IATMI Asia Pacific Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition, Bali, Indonesia, October 2019. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/196288-MS

Phillips, W.. , Mehegan, L.. , and J.. Hernandez. "Improving the reliability and maintenance costs of hydraulically actuated sucker rod pumping systems." Paper presented at the SPE Artificial Lift Conference-Americas, Cartagena, Colombia, May 2013. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/165022-MS

Pilone, Salvatore , Luppina, Salvatore , Ricci Maccarini, Giorgio , Sanasi, Carla , Guglielmo, Carmelo , Imbò, Pasquale , Orsini, Paolo , Mennilli, Giuseppe , Mauriello, Marco , and Andrea Schiavi. "Insert sucker rod surface controlled subsurface safety valve: a step ahead to improve the well integrity for the sucker rod artificial lift retrofitting." Paper presented at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference, Abu Dhabi, UAE, November 2020. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/202668-MS

Pons, Victoria "Optimal stress calculations for sucker rod pumping systems." Paper presented at the SPE Artificial Lift Conference & Exhibition-North America, Houston, Texas, USA, October 2014. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/171346-MS

Romer MC, Spiecker M, Hall TJ, Dieudonne R, Porel F, Jerzak L, Ortiz SD, King GR, Gohil KJ, Tapie W, Peters M, Curkan BA (2021) Development and testing of a wireline-deployed positive-displacement pump for late-life wells. SPE Prod Oper 36:291–316. https://doi.org/10.2118/201163-PA

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Takacs, Gabor , and Mihaly Gajda. "The ultimate sucker-rod string design procedure." Paper presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, October 2014. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/170588-MS

Teodoriu, Catalin , and Erik Pienknagura. "Bringing the sucker rod pumping unit into the classroom with the use of the internet of things." Paper presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Dallas, Texas, USA, September 2018. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/191552-MS

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Wang X, He Y, Li F, Wang Z, Dou X, Xu H, Lipei F (2021) A working condition diagnosis model of sucker rod pumping wells based on deep learning. SPE Prod Oper 36:317–326. https://doi.org/10.2118/205015-PA

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Wang, Xiang, He, Yanfeng, Li, Fajun, Dou, Xiangji, Wang, Zhen, Xu, Hui, and Lipei Fu. "A working condition diagnosis model of sucker rod pumping wells based on big data deep learning." Paper presented at the International Petroleum Technology Conference, Beijing, China, March 2019. doi: https://doi.org/10.2523/IPTC-19242-MS

Wang, Cai , Xiong, Chunming , Zhao, Hanjun , Zhao, Ruidong , Shi, Junfeng , Zhang, Jianjun , Zhang, Xishun , Huang, Hongxing , Chen, Shiwen , Peng, Yi , and Yizhen Sun. "Well condition diagnosis of sucker-rod pumping wells based on the machine learning of electrical power curves in the context of IoT." Paper presented at the Offshore Technology Conference Asia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, November 2020. doi: https://doi.org/10.4043/30326-MS

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Yi, Peng, Chunming, Xiong, Jianjun, Zhang, Yashun, Zhang, Qinming, Gan, Guojian, Xu, Xishun, Zhang, Ruidong, Zhao, Junfeng, Shi, Meng, Liu, Cai, Wang, and Chen Guanhong. "Innovative deep autoencoder and machine learning algorithms applied in production metering for sucker-rod pumping wells." Paper presented at the SPE/AAPG/SEG Unconventional Resources Technology Conference, Denver, Colorado, USA, July 2019. doi: https://doi.org/10.15530/urtec-2019-1090

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Zhang, Jiangjiang , Zeng, Wenguang , Guo, Yujie , Gao, Qiuying , Yang, Zhiwen , Li, Dapeng , Wang, Xiuyun , and Lei Zhang. "Fracture failure analysis of type HL sucker rod in H2S-Co2 environment." Paper presented at the CORROSION 2020, physical event cancelled, June 2020.

Zhao, Ruidong , Wang, Cai , Tao, Zhen , Chen, Shiwen , Cao, Gang , Lei, Qun , Deng, Feng , Shi, Junfeng , Zhang, Xishun , and Jie Liu. "Some new research and application of api dimensionless curves for sucker rod pump." Paper presented at the SPE Middle East Artificial Lift Conference and Exhibition, Manama, Bahrain, November 2018. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/192467-MS

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Researchers have shown that mud pulse telemetry technologies have gained exploration and drilling application advantages by providing cost-effective real-time data transmission in closed-loop drilling operations. Given the inherited mud pulse operation difficulties, there have been numerous communication channel efforts to improve data rate speed and transmission distance in LWD operations. As discussed in “MPT systems signal impairments”, mud pulse signal pulse transmissions are subjected to mud pump noise signals, signal attenuation and dispersion, downhole random (electrical) noises, signal echoes and reflections, drillstring rock formation and gas effects, that demand complex surface signal detection and extraction processes. A number of enhanced signal processing techniques and methods to signal coding and decoding, data compression, noise cancellation and channel equalization have led to improved MPT performance in tests and field applications. This section discusses signal-processing techniques to minimize or eliminate signal impairments on mud pulse telemetry system.

At early stages of mud pulse telemetry applications, matched filter demonstrated the ability to detect mud pulse signals in the presence of simulated or real noise. Matched filter method eliminated the mud noise effects by calculating the self-correlation coefficients of received signal mixed with noise (Marsh et al. 1988). Sharp cutoff low-pass filter was proposed to remove mud pump high frequencies and improve surface signal detection. However, matched filter method was appropriate only for limited single frequency signal modulated by frequency-shift keying (FSK) with low transmission efficiency and could not work for frequency band signals modulated by phase shift keying (PSK) (Shen et al. 2013a).

Wavelet transform method was developed and widely adopted and used in signal processing to overcome limitation of Fourier transform in time domain (Bultheel 2003). Although Fourier and its revised fast Fourier transforms are powerful mathematical tool, they are not very good at detecting rapid changes in signals such as seismic data and well test data in petroleum industry containing many structure of different scales (Multi-scale structures) (Guan et al. 2004). Fourier coefficients do not provide direct information about the signal local behavior (localization); but the average strength of that frequency in the full signal as the sine or cosine function keeps undulating to infinity. Wavelet transform analyzes the signal frequency components and time segment, and fine tune sampling of localized characters of time or frequency domain. Principles of wavelet transform and de-noising technique show that signal can be divided into space and scale (time and frequency) without losing any useful information of the original signal, hence ensuring the extraction of useful information from the noised signal (Li et al. 2007). Different wavelet base parameters constructed, such as haar, db, coif, sym, bior, rbio and dmey, are suitable for different signal processing requirements. The small the scale parameter is, the higher the resolving power in frequency, suitable for processing high frequency signals; conversely, the larger the scale is the higher resolving power suitable for low frequency signal.

In processing noise-contaminated mud pulse signals, longer vanishing moments are used, but takes longer time for wavelet transform. The main wavelet transform method challenges include effective selection of wavelet base, scale parameters and vanishing moment; the key determinants of signal correlation coefficients used to evaluate similarities between original and processed signals. Chen et al. (2010) researched on wavelet transform and de-noising technique to obtain mud pulse signals waveform shaping and signal extraction based on the pulse-code information processing to restore pulse signal and improve SNR. Simulated discrete wavelet transform showed effective de-noise technique, downhole signal was recovered and decoded with low error rate. Namuq et al. (2013) studied mud pulse signal detection and characterization technique of non-stationary continuous pressure pulses generated by the mud siren based on the continuous Morlet wavelet transformation. In this method, generated non-stationary sinusoidal pressure pulses with varying amplitudes and frequencies used ASK and FSK modulation schemes. Simulated wavelet technique showed appropriate results for dynamic signal characteristics analysis.

While Fourier coefficients provide average signal information in frequency domain and unable to reveal the non-stationary signal characteristics, wavelet transform can effectively eliminate MPT random noise when signal carrier frequency characteristics (periods, frequencies, and start and end time) are carefully analyzed.

As discussed in “MPT mud pump noises”, the often overlap of the mud pulses frequency spectra with the mud pump noise frequency components adds complexity to mud pulse signal detection and extraction. Real-time monitoring requirement and the non-stationary frequency characteristics made the utilization of traditional noise filtering techniques very difficult (Brandon et al. 1999). The MPT operations practical problem contains spurious frequency peaks or outliers that the standard filter design cannot effectively eliminate without the possibility of destroying some data. Therefore, to separate noise components from signal components, new filtering algorithms are compulsory.

Early development Brandon et al. (1999) proposed adaptive compensation method that use non-linear digital gain and signal averaging in the reference channel to eliminate the noise components in the primary channel. In this method, synthesized mud pulse signal and mud pump noise were generated and tested to examine the real-time digital adaptive compensation applicability. However, the method was not successfully applied due to complex noise signals where the power and the phases of the pump noises are not the same.

Jianhui et al. (2007) researched the use of two-step filtering algorithms to eliminate mud pulse signal direct current (DC) noise components and attenuate the high frequency noises. In the study, the low-pass finite impulse response (FIR) filter design was used as the DC estimator to get a zero mean signal from the received pressure waveforms while the band-pass filter was used to eliminate out-of-band mud pump frequency components. This method used center-of-gravity technique to obtain mud pulse positions of downhole signal modulated by pulse positioning modulation (PPM) scheme. Later Zhao et al. (2009) used the average filtering algorithm to decay DC noise components and a windowed limited impulse response (FIR) algorithm deployed to filter high frequency noise. Yuan and Gong (2011) studied the use of directional difference filter and band-pass filter methods to remove noise on the continuous mud pulse differential binary phase shift keying (DBPSK) modulated downhole signal. In this technique, the directional difference filter was used to eliminate mud pump and reflection noise signals in time domain while band-pass filter isolated out-of-band noise frequencies in frequency domain.

Other researchers implemented adaptive FIR digital filter using least mean square (LMS) evaluation criterion to realize the filter performances to eliminate random noise frequencies and reconstruct mud pulse signals. This technique was adopted to reduce mud pump noise and improve surface received telemetry signal detection and reliability. However, the quality of reconstructed signal depends on the signal distortion factor, which relates to the filter step-size factor. Reasonably, chosen filter step-size factor reduces the signal distortion quality. Li and Reckmann (2009) research used the reference signal fundamental frequencies and simulated mud pump harmonic frequencies passed through the LMS filter design to adaptively track pump noises. This method reduced the pump noise signals by subtracting the pump noise approximation from the received telemetry signal. Shen et al. (2013a) studied the impacts of filter step-size on signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) distortions. The study used the LMS control algorithm to adjust the adaptive filter weight coefficients on mud pulse signal modulated by differential phase shift keying (DPSK). In this technique, the same filter step-size factor numerical calculations showed that the distortion factor of reconstructed mud pressure QPSK signal is smaller than that of the mud pressure DPSK signal.

Study on electromagnetic LWD receiver’s ability to extract weak signals from large amounts of well site noise using the adaptive LMS iterative algorithm was done by (Liu 2016). Though the method is complex and not straightforward to implement, successive LMS adaptive iterations produced the LMS filter output that converges to an acceptable harmonic pump noise approximation. Researchers’ experimental and simulated results show that the modified LMS algorithm has faster convergence speed, smaller steady state and lower excess mean square error. Studies have shown that adaptive FIR LMS noise cancellation algorithm is a feasible effective technique to recover useful surface-decoded signal with reasonable information quantity and low error rate.

Different techniques which utilize two pressure sensors have been proposed to reduce or eliminate mud pump noises and recover downhole telemetry signals. During mud pressure signal generation, activated pulsar provides an uplink signal at the downhole location and the at least two sensor measurements are used to estimate the mud channel transfer function (Reckmann 2008). The telemetry signal and the first signal (pressure signal or flow rate signal) are used to activate the pulsar and provide an uplink signal at the downhole location; second signal received at the surface detectors is processed to estimate the telemetry signal; a third signal responsive to the uplink signal at a location near the downhole location is measured (Brackel 2016; Brooks 2015; Reckmann 2008, 2014). The filtering process uses the time delay between first and third signals to estimate the two signal cross-correlation (Reckmann 2014). In this method, the derived filter estimates the transfer function of the communication channel between the pressure sensor locations proximate to the mud pump noise source signals. The digital pump stroke is used to generate pump noise signal source at a sampling rate that is less than the selected receiver signal (Brackel 2016). This technique is complex as it is difficult to estimate accurately the phase difference required to give quantifiable time delay between the pump sensor and pressure sensor signals.

As mud pulse frequencies coincide with pump noise frequency in the MPT 1–20 Hz frequency operations, applications of narrow-band filter cannot effectively eliminate pump noises. Shao et al. (2017) proposed continuous mud pulse signal extraction method using dual sensor differential signal algorithm; the signal was modulated by the binary frequency-shift keying (BFSK). Based on opposite propagation direction between the downhole mud pulses and pump noises, analysis of signal convolution and Fourier transform theory signal processing methods can cancel pump noise signals using Eqs. 3 and 4. The extracted mud pulse telemetry signal in frequency domain is given by Eqs. 3 and 4 and its inverse Fourier transformation by Eq. 4. The method is feasible to solve the problem of signal extraction from pump noise,

\(H(\omega )={f^{ - 1}}h(t)=G(\omega ){e^{ - j\omega \tau }}\) is the Fourier transformed impulse response, \(h(t)\), data transmission between sensor A and sensor B.

These researches provide a novel mud pulse signal detection and extraction techniques submerged into mud pump noise, attenuation, reflections, and other noise signals as it moves through the drilling mud.

A mud pump (sometimes referred to as a mud drilling pump or drilling mud pump), is a reciprocating piston/plunger pump designed to circulate drilling fluid under high pressure (up to 7,500 psi or 52,000 kPa) down the drill string and back up the annulus. A mud pump is an important part of the equipment used for oil well drilling.

Mud pumps can be divided into single-acting pump and double-acting pump according to the completion times of the suction and drainage acting in one cycle of the piston"s reciprocating motion.

Mud pumps come in a variety of sizes and configurations but for the typical petroleum drilling rig, the triplex (three piston/plunger) mud pump is used. Duplex mud pumps (two piston/plungers) have generally been replaced by the triplex pump, but are still common in developing countries. Two later developments are the hex pump with six vertical pistons/plungers, and various quintuplexes with five horizontal piston/plungers. The advantages that these new pumps have over convention triplex pumps is a lower mud noise which assists with better measurement while drilling (MWD) and logging while drilling (LWD) decoding.

The fluid end produces the pumping process with valves, pistons, and liners. Because these components are high-wear items, modern pumps are designed to allow quick replacement of these parts.

To reduce severe vibration caused by the pumping process, these pumps incorporate both a suction and discharge pulsation dampener. These are connected to the inlet and outlet of the fluid end.

Displacement is calculated as discharged liters per minute. It is related to the drilling hole diameter and the return speed of drilling fluid from the bottom of the hole, i.e. the larger the diameter of drilling hole, the larger the desired displacement. The return speed of drilling fluid should wash away the debris and rock powder cut by the drill from the bottom of the hole in a timely manner, and reliably carry them to the earth"s surface. When drilling geological core, the speed is generally in range of 0.4 to 1.0 m^3/min.

The pressure of the pump depends on the depth of the drilling hole, the resistance of flushing fluid (drilling fluid) through the channel, as well as the nature of the conveying drilling fluid. The deeper the drilling hole and the greater the pipeline resistance, the higher the pressure needed.

With the changes of drilling hole diameter and depth, the displacement of the pump can be adjusted accordingly. In the mud pump mechanism, the gearbox or hydraulic motor is equipped to adjust its speed and displacement. In order to accurately measure the changes in pressure and displacement, a flow meter and pressure gauge are installed in the mud pump.

The construction department should have a special maintenance worker that is responsible for the maintenance and repair of the machine. Mud pumps and other mechanical equipment should be inspected and maintained on a scheduled and timely basis to find and address problems ahead of time, in order to avoid unscheduled shutdown. The worker should attend to the size of the sediment particles; if large particles are found, the mud pump parts should be checked frequently for wear, to see if they need to be repaired or replaced. The wearing parts for mud pumps include pump casing, bearings, impeller, piston, liner, etc. Advanced anti-wear measures should be adopted to increase the service life of the wearing parts, which can reduce the investment cost of the project, and improve production efficiency. At the same time, wearing parts and other mud pump parts should be repaired rather than replaced when possible.

An oil well is a drillhole boring in Earth that is designed to bring petroleum oil hydrocarbons to the surface. Usually some natural gas is released as associated petroleum gas along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce only gas may be termed a gas well. Wells are created by drilling down into an oil or gas reserve that is then mounted with an extraction device such as a pumpjack which allows extraction from the reserve. Creating the wells can be an expensive process, costing at least hundreds of thousands of dollars, and costing much more when in hard to reach areas, e.g., when creating offshore oil platforms. The process of modern drilling for wells first started in the 19th century, but was made more efficient with advances to oil drilling rigs during the 20th century.

Wells are frequently sold or exchanged between different oil and gas companies as an asset – in large part because during falls in price of oil and gas, a well may be unproductive, but if prices rise, even low production wells may be economically valuable. Moreover, new methods, such as hydraulic fracturing (a process of injecting gas or liquid to force more oil or natural gas production) have made some wells viable. However, peak oil and climate policy to fossil fuels has made fewer and fewer of these wells and expensive techniques viable.

However, the large number of neglected or poorly maintained wellheads is a large environmental issue: they may leak methane emissions or other toxic emissions into local air, water or soil systems. This pollution often becomes worse when wells are abandoned or orphaned – where wells no longer are economically viable, and no longer are maintained by a company. A 2020 estimate by Reuters suggested that there were at least 29 million abandoned wells internationally, creating a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change.

The ancient records of China and Japan are said to contain many allusions to the use of natural gas for lighting and heating. Petroleum was known as burning water in Japan in the 7th century.

According to Kasem Ajram, petroleum was distilled by the Persian alchemist Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi (Rhazes) in the 9th century, producing chemicals such as kerosene in the alembic (al-ambiq),kerosene lamps.Arab and Persian chemists also distilled crude oil in order to produce flammable products for military purposes. Through Islamic Spain, distillation became available in Western Europe by the 12th century.

Some sources claim that from the 9th century, oil fields were exploited in the area around modern Baku, Azerbaijan, to produce naphtha for the petroleum industry. These places were described by Marco Polo in the 13th century, who described the output of those oil wells as hundreds of shiploads. When Marco Polo in 1264 visited Baku, on the shores of the Caspian Sea, he saw oil being collected from seeps. He wrote that "on the confines toward Geirgine there is a fountain from which oil springs in great abundance, in as much as a hundred shiploads might be taken from it at one time."

In 1846, Baku (settlement Bibi-Heybat) the first ever well was drilled with percussion tools to a depth of 21 metres (69 ft) for oil exploration. In 1846–1848, the first modern oil wells were drilled on the Absheron Peninsula north-east of Baku, by Russian engineer Vasily Semyonov considering the ideas of Nikolay Voskoboynikov.

Ignacy Łukasiewicz, a Polishpharmacist and petroleum industry pioneer built one of the world"s first modern oil wells in 1854 in Polish village Bóbrka, Krosno Countyoil refineries.

In North America, the first commercial oil well entered operation in Oil Springs, Ontario in 1858, while the first offshore oil well was drilled in 1896 at the Summerland Oil Field on the California Coast.

The earliest oil wells in modern times were drilled percussively, by repeatedly raising and dropping a cable tool into the earth. In the 20th century, cable tools were largely replaced with rotary drilling, which could drill boreholes to much greater depths and in less time.Kola Borehole used a mud motor while drilling to achieve a depth of over 12,000 metres (12 km; 39,000 ft; 7.5 mi).

Until the 1970s, most oil wells were vertical, although lithological and mechanical imperfections cause most wells to deviate at least slightly from true vertical (see deviation survey). However, modern directional drilling technologies allow for strongly deviated wells which can, given sufficient depth and with the proper tools, actually become horizontal. This is of great value as the reservoir rocks which contain hydrocarbons are usually horizontal or nearly horizontal; a horizontal wellbore placed in a production zone has more surface area in the production zone than a vertical well, resulting in a higher production rate. The use of deviated and horizontal drilling has also made it possible to reach reservoirs several kilometers or miles away from the drilling location (extended reach drilling), allowing for the production of hydrocarbons located below locations that are either difficult to place a drilling rig on, environmentally sensitive, or populated.

For an injection well, the target is selected to locate the point of injection in a permeable zone, which may support disposing of water or gas and /or pushing hydrocarbons into nearby production wells.

The target (the end point of the well) will be matched with a surface location (the starting point of the well), and a trajectory between the two will be designed. There are many considerations to take into account when designing the trajectory such as the clearance to any nearby wells (anti-collision) or if this well will get in the way of future wells, trying to avoid faults if possible and certain formations may be easier/more difficult to drill at certain inclinations or azimuths.

When the well path is identified, a team of geoscientists and engineers will develop a set of presumed properties of the subsurface that will be drilled through to reach the target. These properties include pore pressure, fracture gradient, wellbore stability, porosity, permeability, lithology, faults, and clay content. This set of assumptions is used by a well engineering team to perform the casing design and completion design for the well, and then detailed planning, where, for example, the drill bits are selected, a BHA is designed, the drilling fluid is selected, and step-by-step procedures are written to provide instruction for executing the well in a safe and cost-efficient manner.

With the interplay with many of the elements in a well design and making a change to one will have a knock on effect on many other things, often trajectories and designs go through several iterations before a plan is finalised.

The well is created by drilling a hole 12 cm to 1 meter (5 in to 40 in) in diameter into the earth with a drilling rig that rotates a drill string with a bit attached. After the hole is drilled, sections of steel pipe (casing), slightly smaller in diameter than the borehole, are placed in the hole. Cement may be placed between the outside of the casing and the borehole known as the annulus. The casing provides structural integrity to the newly drilled wellbore, in addition to isolating potentially dangerous high pressure zones from each other and from the surface.

With these zones safely isolated and the formation protected by the casing, the well can be drilled deeper (into potentially more-unstable and violent formations) with a smaller bit, and also cased with a smaller size casing. Modern wells often have two to five sets of subsequently smaller hole sizes drilled inside one another, each cemented with casing.

Drilling fluid, a.k.a. "mud", is pumped down the inside of the drill pipe and exits at the drill bit. The principal components of drilling fluid are usually water and clay, but it also typically contains a complex mixture of fluids, solids and chemicals that must be carefully tailored to provide the correct physical and chemical characteristics required to safely drill the well. Particular functions of the drilling mud include cooling the bit, lifting rock cuttings to the surface, preventing destabilisation of the rock in the wellbore walls and overcoming the pressure of fluids inside the rock so that these fluids do not enter the wellbore. Some oil wells are drilled with air or foam as the drilling fluid.

The generated rock "cuttings" are swept up by the drilling fluid as it circulates back to surface outside the drill pipe. The fluid then goes through "shakers" which strain the cuttings from the good fluid which is returned to the pit. Watching for abnormalities in the returning cuttings and monitoring pit volume or rate of returning fluid are imperative to catch "kicks" early. A "kick" is when the formation pressure at the depth of the bit is more than the hydrostatic head of the mud above, which if not controlled temporarily by closing the blowout preventers and ultimately by increasing the density of the drilling fluid would allow formation fluids and mud to come up through the annulus uncontrollably.

The pipe or drill string to which the bit is attached is gradually lengthened as the well gets deeper by screwing in additional 9 m (30 ft) sections or "joints" of pipe under the kelly or topdrive at the surface. This process is called making a connection. The process called "tripping" is when pulling the bit out of hole to replace the bit (tripping out), and running back in with a new bit (tripping in). Joints can be combined for more efficient tripping when pulling out of the hole by creating stands of multiple joints. A conventional triple, for example, would pull pipe out of the hole three joints at a time and stack them in the derrick. Many modern rigs, called "super singles", trip pipe one at a time, laying it out on racks as they go.

This process is all facilitated by a drilling rig which contains all necessary equipment to circulate the drilling fluid, hoist and turn the pipe, control downhole, remove cuttings from the drilling fluid, and generate on-site power for these operations.

In a cased-hole completion, small holes called perforations are made in the portion of the casing which passed through the production zone, to provide a path for the oil to flow from the surrounding rock into the production tubing. In open hole completion, often "sand screens" or a "gravel pack" is installed in the last drilled, uncased reservoir section. These maintain structural integrity of the wellbore in the absence of casing, while still allowing flow from the reservoir into the wellbore. Screens also control the migration of formation sands into production tubulars and surface equipment, which can cause washouts and other problems, particularly from unconsolidated sand formations of offshore fields.

After a flow path is made, acids and fracturing fluids may be pumped into the well to fracture, clean, or otherwise prepare and stimulate the reservoir rock to optimally produce hydrocarbons into the wellbore. Finally, the area above the reservoir section of the well is packed off inside the casing, and connected to the surface via a smaller diameter pipe called tubing. This arrangement provides a redundant barrier to leaks of hydrocarbons as well as allowing damaged sections to be replaced. Also, the smaller cross-sectional area of the tubing produces reservoir fluids at an increased velocity in order to minimize liquid fallback that would create additional back pressure, and shields the casing from corrosive well fluids.

In many wells, the natural pressure of the subsurface reservoir is high enough for the oil or gas to flow to the surface. However, this is not always the case, especially in depleted fields where the pressures have been lowered by other producing wells, or in low permeability oil reservoirs. Installing a smaller diameter tubing may be enough to help the production, but artificial lift methods may also be needed. Common solutions include downhole pumps, gas lift, or surface pump jacks. Many new systems in the last ten years have been introduced for well completion. Multiple packer systems with frac ports or port collars in an all in one system have cut completion costs and improved production, especially in the case of horizontal wells. These new systems allow casings to run into the lateral zone with proper packer/frac port placement for optimal hydrocarbon recovery.

A schematic of a typical oil well being produced by a pumpjack, which is used to produce the remaining recoverable oil after natural pressure is no longer sufficient to raise oil to the surface

The production stage is the most important stage of a well"s life; when the oil and gas are produced. By this time, the oil rigs and workover rigs used to drill and complete the well have moved off the wellbore, and the top is usually outfitted with a collection of valves called a Christmas tree or production tree. These valves regulate pressures, control flows, and allow access to the wellbore in case further completion work is needed. From the outlet valve of the production tree, the flow can be connected to a distribution network of pipelines and tanks to supply the product to refineries, natural gas compressor stations, or oil export terminals.

As long as the pressure in the reservoir remains high enough, the production tree is all that is required to produce the well. If the pressure depletes and it is considered economically viable, an artificial lift method mentioned in the completions section can be employed.

Workovers are often necessary in older wells, which may need smaller diameter tubing, scale or paraffin removal, acid matrix jobs, or completing new zones of interest in a shallower reservoir. Such remedial work can be performed using workover rigs – also known as pulling units, completion rigs or "service rigs" – to pull and replace tubing, or by the use of well intervention techniques utilizing coiled tubing. Depending on the type of lift system and wellhead a rod rig or flushby can be used to change a pump without pulling the tubing.

Enhanced recovery methods such as water flooding, steam flooding, or CO2 flooding may be used to increase reservoir pressure and provide a "sweep" effect to push hydrocarbons out of the reservoir. Such methods require the use of injection wells (often chosen from old production wells in a carefully determined pattern), and are used when facing problems with reservoir pressure depletion, high oil viscosity, or can even be employed early in a field"s life. In certain cases – depending on the reservoir"s geomechanics – reservoir engineers may determine that ultimate recoverable oil may be increased by applying a waterflooding strategy early in the field"s development rather than later. Such enhanced recovery techniques are often called "tertiary recovery".

Orphan, orphaned or abandoned wells are oil or gas wells that have been abandoned by fossil fuel extraction industries. These wells may have been deactivated because of economic viability, failure to transfer ownerships (especially at bankruptcy of companies), or neglect and thus no longer have legal owners responsible for their care. Decommissioning wells effectively can be expensive, costing millions of dollars,climate change mitigation reduces demand and usage of oil and gas, its expected that more wells will be abandoned as stranded assets.

Orphan wells are an important contributor of greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change. Wells are an important source of methane emissions through leakage through plugs, or failure to plug properly. A 2020 estimate of US abandoned wells alone was that methane emissions released from abandoned wells produced greenhouse gas impacts equivalent of 3 weeks US oil consumption each year.

Abandoned wells also have the potential to contaminate land, air and water around wells, potentially harming ecosystems, wildlife, livestock, and humans.

Natural gas, in a raw form known as associated petroleum gas, is almost always a by-product of producing oil.reservoir to the surface, similar to uncapping a bottle of soda where the carbon dioxide effervesces. If it escapes into the atmosphere intentionally it is known as vented gas, or if unintentionally as fugitive gas.

Unwanted natural gas can be a disposal problem at wells that are developed to produce oil. If there are no pipelines for natural gas near the wellhead it may be of no value to the oil well owner since it cannot reach the consumer markets. Such unwanted gas may then be burned off at the well site in a practice known as production flaring, but due to the energy resource waste and environmental damage concerns this practice is becoming less common.

Often, unwanted (or "stranded" gas without a market) gas is pumped back into the reservoir with an "injection" well for storage or for re-pressurizing the producing formation. Another solution is to convert the natural gas to a liquid fuel. Gas to liquid (GTL) is a developing technology that converts stranded natural gas into synthetic gasoline, diesel or jet fuel through the Fischer–Tropsch process developed in World War II Germany. Like oil, such dense liquid fuels can be transported using conventional tankers or trucking to users. Proponents claim GTL fuels burn cleaner than comparable petroleum fuels. Most major international oil companies are in advanced development stages of GTL production, e.g. the 140,000 bbl/d (22,000 m3/d) Pearl GTL plant in Qatar, scheduled to come online in 2011. In locations such as the United States with a high natural gas demand, pipelines are usually favored to take the gas from the well site to the end consumer.

Wells with subsea wellheads, where the top of the well is sitting on the ocean floor under water, and often connected to a pipeline on the ocean floor.

appraisal wells are used to assess characteristics (such as flow rate, reserve quantity) of a proven hydrocarbon accumulation. The purpose of this well is to reduce uncertainty about the characteristics and properties of the hydrocarbon present in the field.

water injectors injecting water into the formation to maintain reservoir pressure, or simply to dispose of water produced with the hydrocarbons because even after treatment, it would be too oily and too saline to be considered clean for dumping overboard offshore, let alone into a fresh water resource in the case of onshore wells. Water injection into the producing zone frequently has an element of reservoir management; however, often produced water disposal is into shallower zones safely beneath any fresh water zones.

aquifer producers intentionally producing water for re-injection to manage pressure. If possible this water will come from the reservoir itself. Using aquifer produced water rather than water from other sources is to preclude chemical incompatibility that might lead to reservoir-plugging precipitates. These wells will generally be needed only if produced water from the oil or gas producers is insufficient for reservoir management purposes.

gas injectors injecting gas into the reservoir often as a means of disposal or sequestering for later production, but also to maintain reservoir pressure.

The cost of a well depends mainly on the daily rate of the drilling rig, the extra services required to drill the well, the duration of the well program (including downtime and weather time), and the remoteness of the location (logistic supply costs).

Onshore wells can be considerably cheaper, particularly if the field is at a shallow depth, where costs range from less than $4.9 million to $8.3 million, and the average completion costing $2.9 million to $5.6 million per well.

The total cost of an oil well mentioned does not include the costs associated with the risk of explosion and leakage of oil. Those costs include the cost of protecting against such disasters, the cost of the cleanup effort, and the hard-to-calculate cost of damage to the company"s image.

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Fossil fuels—oil, natural gas, and coal—are made of the preserved organic remains of ancient organisms. Organic matter is only preserved when its rate of accumulation is higher than the rate of its decay. This most often happens when the oxygen supply is so low that aerobic bacteria (oxygen-loving bacteria) cannot thrive, which greatly slows the breakdown of organic matter. When organic matter does not break down, over time it will be incorporated into buried sediment. After burial, the organic material is compacted and heated with the rest of the rock, eventually transforming it into fossil fuels.

A chunk of peat. Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed plant matter. Under proper heat and pressure, it will turn into lignite coal over geologic periods of time.Photo by Donna Beaver Pizzarella, USGS (public domain).

Oil and natural gas form from organic matter in the pores of sediments subjected to heat and pressure. The organic matter is primarily composed of photosynthetic plankton that die and sink to the bottom of large water bodies in vast numbers. Shale in particular is often organic rich, because organic matter settles and accumulates in the same places that mud (clay and silt particles) settles out of the water.

In most environments, organic matter is recycled by bacteria before it can be buried, but the quiet waters where mud accumulates are often relatively stagnant and low in oxygen. In these places, the bacterial decay rate is low relative to the rate at which organic matter sinks and becomes buried in muddy sediments. Under such conditions, organic matter may accumulate enough to make up several percent or more of the deposited sediment.

Oil and gas that form in rocks under the Earth"s surface are under pressure. Therefore, they will move gradually upward to areas of lower pressure through tiny connections between pore spaces and natural fractures in rocks.

A rock layer that forms a reservoir for oil or gas must be permeable. Fluids and gas (such as water, oil, and natural gas) can move through permeable rocks, or rocks that have enough connected fractures or space between grains to form pathways for the movement of fluids and gas. Sandstone, limestone, and fractured rocks are generally permeable.

Diagram of an oil and gas reservoir. In this image, natural gas and fluids (water and oil) have accumulated in a layer of permeable reservoir rock, where they are separated by density (gas is lightest, water densest). An impermeable clay or shale layer that has been folded serves as a barrier to further movement of fluids and gas upward toward the surface. Image modified from original by Jim Houghton, published in The Teacher-Friendly Guide to the Geology of the Southeastern U.S., 2nd ed., edited by Andrielle N. Swaby, Mark D. Lucas, and Robert M. Ross (published by the Paleontological Research Institution) (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license).

Oil shale is rock that contains an immature, waxy, solid organic material known as kerogen. Kerogen is not actually oil. Kerogen must be artificially heated to convert it into synthetic oil or a hydrocarbon gas. Thus, the whole rock layer, which may or may not technically be shale, must be mined and/or processed (possibly in place) to produce synthetic oil.

Rock salt (the mineral halite) is solid and impermeable, but when it is under very high pressure it can flow like a thick liquid. When a layer of salt is buried under thousands of feet of overlying sediment, it will start to deform. Because it is less dense than the rocks above it, it flows upward toward areas of lower pressure, forming geological structures named for their shapes (e.g., domes, canopies, tables, and lenses).

As salt structures grow, they in turn influence the topography of the surrounding landscape, creating zones of uplift surrounding areas of subsidence (sinking), fractures, and faults. When salt flows upward, it deforms the surrounding strata, creating gaps in which oil and gas may pool and be trapped. Oil and gas also accumulate under and along the salt structures.

Diagram of solution mining to create a salt cavern. A pumphouse pumps water into an underground salt dome. The water dissolves the salt, and the brine (salty water) is pumped back out, creating a salt cavern (a large cavity) in the salt dome. Image modified from original by Wade Greenberg-Brand, published in The Teacher-Friendly Guide to the Geology of the Southeastern U.S., 2nd ed., edited by Andrielle N. Swaby, Mark D. Lucas, and Robert M. Ross (published by the Paleontological Research Institution) (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license).

Natural asphalt seeps (tar pits) in California. Left:Bubbles in a tar pit in La Brea, Los Angeles, California. Photo by Daniel Schwen (Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution license 2.5 Generic license, image cropped). Right:Asphalt seep in Carpinteria, Califronia. Photo by Ipab (Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license, image cropped and resized).

Once an oil trap or reservoir rock has been detected on land, oil crews excavate a broad, flat pit for equipment and supplies around the area where the well will be drilled. Once the initial hole is prepared, an apparatus called a drilling rig is set up. The rig is a complex piece of machinery designed to drill through rock to a predetermined depth. A typical drilling rig usually contains generators to power the system, motors and hoists to lift the rotary drill, and circulation systems to remove rock from the borehole and lubricate the drill bit with mud.

Diagrams of oil wells. Left:A conventional vertical well. Right:A horizontal well. Hydraulic fracturing may be carried out along horizontal wells running for 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) or more along layers with oil or gas trapped in pore spaces. Image modified from original by Jim Houghton, published in The Teacher-Friendly Guide to the Geology of the Southeastern U.S., 2nd ed., edited by Andrielle N. Swaby, Mark D. Lucas, and Robert M. Ross (published by the Paleontological Research Institution) (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license).

The support structure used to hold the drilling apparatus is called