The Blog | SPOC Automation

Episode 9: How to Get A 30% Reduction in Energy Costs

Written by Admin | Apr 9, 2020 12:15:00 PM

Transcript

Hello again, Bryan Lile back with SPOC Automation for my second video. During our last conversation, we talked about an experience that one of our East Texas production companies had in reducing their LOE costs. I wanted to expand on that a little bit. First, I wanted to give you a little background information.

When I jumped into the industry, I did a lot of research and found numerous publications, by SPE and other organizations, about the benefits of applying VFDs to rod pumps. As the name of the video implies, we only have two minutes. I’ll just give you the highlights of a few things that jumped out to me — a 75% reduction in beam pump failures, an 18-30% increase in production rates, 10% reduction in upfront capital cost.

If you’re like me, that sounded too good to be true. I’ve had numerous, numerous personal experiences, but we only have two minutes. So, I’ll give you one quick example of the East Texas operation that I mentioned. They had the same thoughts, sounds too good to be true. Let’s put it in place and practice it. We have limited resources and we want to apply them frugally and efficiently to get the best bang for the buck.

They are able to realize that 30%+ reduction to their LOE costs, including the capital to buy the VFD and pump off control. They did this in three ways. First and foremost was through the energy savings. They are able to set the proper production speed for their pump, not over or under pump it.

Secondly, they use the pump off control and also, they’re able to switch over to NEMA B Motors and pickup those efficiency points. Also, they were able to allow their local pumpers and operators to make faster and more accurate field decisions to speed up or slow down the pumping unit.

As a result, they realized a 20-25% reduction in downtime. And with this reduction in downtime, they also increased their production rate. So, as you can imagine, they found this super valuable and have now started to apply the same setup as their standard operating procedure going forward.

I hope you found this information helpful. If you have any further questions, please reach out to me personally. Visit our website or social media posts. And also, be on the lookout with a white paper that’s going to be coming out exploring this case study. Thanks and be safe, guys.