Swabbing a well makes good business sense, and is an art form unto itself. A regular swabbing program can wring a few more years of production out of old wells, and can also increase production on newer, more active wells. Either way, this means more money for your business. That makes the investment into swabbing equipment quite worth it.
What is Well Swabbing?
During the life of a well, fluids are always flowing back into it as you pump your product out of it. As the well gets older, the bottom hole pressure falls off, which prevents the well from pushing out these excess fluids. In time, water and other fluids you are not interested in will rise above the natural gas or oil you are pumping. When this happens, your well’s production can be severely limited, or cease entirely. Swabbing fixes this.
Swabbing is done with machines designed just for this purpose. The size of the machine used depends on the size and depth of your well. Tools are lowered into the well, with rubber swab cups above them. The tools push the excess fluid above the level of the cups, and when the tools and cups are raised, the fluid comes out in a column.
Columns of fluid are raised until there is enough to fill a barrel. One barrel of fluid is called a “run.” Most wells only require one run to be clean enough to use again, though some require multiple runs before production can resume.
How Does Well Swabbing Increase Production?
Once excess fluid is swabbed from the well, the hydrostatic pressure on it is relieved. Oil and natural gas are able to easily flow to the top of the well again. It is easy to wait until you notice a fall-off in production to swab a well, but this is not the smartest business move you can make. A better move is to preemptively swab your wells, before they become sluggish.
A regular swabbing program, set up on a regular schedule, keeps your wells from backing up at all. A clean well is a productive well. Keep your well clean, and your downtime will be significantly minimized. Seemingly dead wells can also be brought back to life with swabbing, as well. They might produce a few more barrels, or even come back to full production.
With regular swabbing, your wells will be at their finest. One of our swabbing rigs kept onsite is what you need to achieve excellence. Try one and notice the difference swabbing makes
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