Artificial lift screening · by VAPS
Enter a few numbers about your well. The VAPS Lift Selector checks electric submersible pumps, progressing cavity pumps, gas lift and rod pumps against the limits lift engineers use, then shows which fits best and why.
The comparison
Every method starts at 100 and loses points for each factor where your well pushes it toward its limits. A factor outside a method's range rules it out.
Each panel shows where a method usually works (darker) and where it can stretch with special equipment (lighter). The amber dot is your well.
The next step
A screen narrows the field. The final choice comes from your well's own data, a matched well model and the economics. That is the work our engineers and PVT laboratory do every day.
The methods
Every lift method lowers the pressure at the bottom of the well so the reservoir can push in more oil. They differ in where the energy comes from and what the well can throw at them.
How it works
The Lift Selector follows the same steps an engineer takes at the start of a lift study, and shows its working at every step.
Rate, depth and temperature are compared with each method's typical and extended operating ranges. Rod pumps and PCPs lose capacity with depth, so their rate limit falls as the pump goes deeper.
Free gas (from the gas-oil ratio and water cut), sand, oil viscosity (estimated from °API and temperature), well path, reservoir pressure, location and the power or lift gas on hand are each rated good, workable, needs care, poor or outside range.
Each method starts at 100 and loses 6 points for a workable factor, 16 for one that needs care and 30 for a poor one. A factor outside a method's range caps its score at 15. Scores within a few points are flagged as a close call.
The tool says why the best fit wins, what to watch for, and what stops each of the others, so you can check its reasoning against what you know about the well.
Screening ranges follow published practice: K. E. Brown, "Overview of Artificial Lift Systems", JPT, October 1982; J. D. Clegg, S. M. Bucaram and N. W. Hein, "Recommendations and Comparisons for Selecting Artificial-Lift Methods", JPT, December 1993; and the screening charts lift suppliers publish. Oil viscosity uses the Beggs and Robinson dead-oil correlation.
This is a first screen, not a design or a guarantee. Use it to start a conversation, and confirm any lift decision with a full engineering study.
