DOE, Industry Project Deploys New Stripper Well Tool

October 10, 2006 // Published as a news service by IHS

The technology, named the VortexFlow SX tool, was sponsored by the Stripper Well Consortium, a government-industry group focused on developing low-cost technologies applicable to both oil and gas stripper wells.

The DOE co-funds the consortium through an agreement with Pennsylvania State University.

Vortex Flow LLC developed the new SX tool and has deployed it in more than 200 stripper well operations across the country.

Stripper wells produce oil and gas at rates of less than 10 barrels per day of oil or 60,000 cubic feet per day of natural gas. Some 80% of U.S. oil wells are now classified as marginal stripper wells.

Because these wells produce 860,000 barrels of oil per day (nearly 20% of U.S. production) and the nation's natural gas stripper wells produce 1.5 trillion cubic feet of gas per day (about 8% of U.S. production), any increase in their production rates or decrease in related costs improves the U.S. supply of energy.

Vortex Flow based its SX tool on breakthroughs in fluid dynamics that provide a way for an operator to address the turbulence and disorganization of liquids and gases when they flow through a pipe.

The SX tool converts the turbulent, disorganized flow into an organized "vortex" flow that accelerates the velocity of water used in the process and reduces the friction that causes the pressure to drop as fluids move through a pipe.

By doing so at both surface and subsurface levels, the SX tool helps to reduce wear and tear on oil and gas pipelines while increasing production and reducing costs. At current gas prices, the SX tool has been shown to pay for itself within 60 days. Vortex Flow perfected its tool during testing at DOE's Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center in Casper, Wyoming.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy.