CSE – An Emerging Alternative

By Franklin Foster, Ph.D

Continuous Sand Extraction (CSE) is emerging as an alternative production system.  It uses mainly hardware that has been around the patch for years but it represents a new way of thinking.  All those familiar with the process give Shane Freeson, then with Wascana, the credit for driving the idea forward.  Mr. Freeson, now a Facilities Engineer with Petrovera Resources, credits the production team at Wascana who responded to the challenge of how to produce wells having problems due to a high concentration of solids.   

The first key was to use pump to surface equipment to produce the wells.  Usually the candidate wells continually sanded in, had overburden collapse, or suffered from some other condition that had brought them to within one step of abandonment.  Pump to surface equipment was a well-known service solution.  The equipment was better able to pump bulk materials to the surface because the rod string was removed and replaced with a modified pump to surface pump fitted directly to the tubing.  This “open bore” approach allowed sustained production of sand and other formation debris.   

Shane Freeson approached Top Gun Sand Pumps and Rentals, and other companies, about designing long term pump to surface pumps.  As Top Gun owner, Tyler Scott recalls, “we made some modifications to our pump to surface pumps and our modifications worked well right from the beginning.”  Instead of the previous applications, which usually lasted only a few days, the modified units could operate for  prolonged periods, measured in months.  The success of the initial pump modifications and subsequent applications was due, in no small part, to the experience and expertise of the two main principals of Top Gun, Tyler and Stuart Scott.   Tyler had worked for Guiberson AVA for three years prior to establishing Top Gun in 1995.  Stuart has extensive experience in heavy oil production having worked for Wascana Energy for ten years. 

The second key to developing an effective CSE system was finding the right lifting equipment.  Lifting the tubing string up and down is a much heavier load than the rod string.  Enter Bob Laidlaw and his company RANG Hydraulics.  Over 20 years ago he had designed a Hydraulic Electronic Pneumatic lift system, which came to be known as the HEP unit.  It was a design before its time.  It introduced hydraulics to an oil patch steeped in mechanical solutions and its electronics were literally a generation ahead of their time.  Despite its sometimes impressive results, and the solid science behind its design, the HEP earned something of a bad name in the patch.

When Shane Freeson came to RANG Hydraulics for a lift system for the new pump to surface applications, Bob had the answer.  He took the old HEP design, slimmed it, simplified it, and produced the TINAH.  (The acronym stands for This Is Not A HEP).  The TINAH can easily handle 40,000-pound loads, it has a variable stroke length of up to 12 feet, and it can reach speeds of up to 3 strokes per minute.  It also is a system in which the velocity of the up stroke can be different than the velocity of the down stroke.  Hydraulics also allows a much longer period of maximum velocity than a reciprocating system which reaches maximum velocity for only a brief instant in each stroke.  Even the dwell times can be varied. 

The ability to vary the operation of the lift system makes it ideal for our heavy oil environment.  No two wells are the same and hydraulics, explains Mr. Laidlaw, “allows us to adjust the surface equipment to pump the way the well dictates.”  Another feature is that the TINAH is simple for operators to use.  Adjustments are made conventionally with valves and manual controls.

The next step in emergence of CSE came thanks to Kirby Hayes of Kirby Hayes Incorporated.  Mr. Hayes provides professional marketing services to the heavy oil industry and both Top Gun and RANG Hydraulics became his clients.  As Mr. Laidlaw comments “We would be unlikely to employ a full time salesperson.  It’s far more economical to use Kirby Hayes Incorporated and, because Kirby represents a number of companies, he can often open doors for us that otherwise wouldn’t be available simply because we are part of what he calls his toolbox.”  Tyler Scott agrees.  “Kirby has the contacts that can get our products before a wide range of producers.”  As well, everyone credits Kirby Hayes with speeding up the adoption process.  As Shane Freeson comments, “Kirby has done a good job of bringing awareness to other operators who weren’t familiar with it.”

Continuous Sand Extraction is working well.  Currently more than 40 installations are being operated in various fields by various companies.  Operators associated with these companies were reluctant to comment on the record but it seems clear that producers view this process as one with a lot of potential for producing problem wells.  To this point, CSE has only been applied to wells where conventional pumping methods have failed.  As Bob Laidlaw says, “We are making oil that otherwise would not be made.”  What those associated with CSE would like to see though is the system applied to new wells and non-problematic producers.  Such an application should be more efficient.  CSE is based on a pump system that is cheaper to service.  In fact, faced with high solids, PC pumps can over-torque and fail, necessitating costly replacement.  CSE will usually handle the solids but if not will require only a much cheaper service solution.  Even if pump replacement is necessary, it will still be the cheaper option.  CSE minimizes the need for workovers on some wells.  In short, CSE makes more oil from many problem wells.  In several instances, CSE has cleaned up a well but when a PC pump was reinstalled, the well soon failed again. What CSE needs is a full and fair trial as a long term, alternative production system on a wide range of heavy oil wells.

Mr. Laidlaw expects it will take a few years before there is widespread acceptance of the system.  “It took five years or more for screw pumps to be accepted,” he comments. Tyler Scott is more optimistic.  “It may happen sooner than expected”, he states, “although there is still a learning curve to perfect the process.” 

Another aspect favoring the development of the process is the team approach that has characterized it from the beginning.  Again, as Mr. Freeson comments, “solutions have come quicker because of the different perspectives of the partners involved.”  Kirby Hayes agrees.  “This project has been very much a team effort that has contributed to the success of the systems.  In addition to Top Gun, Rang, and myself, large contributions have come from the producers that have implemented the process.  The producers have applied their expertise, ideas and well bores and have assisted and continue to assist us in applying this technology.”

So it appears that this time, producers might be quicker to recognize an important innovation.  Based on solid, proven science, and using some breakthrough modifications of older technologies, CSE is indeed making oil where it wasn’t being made before.  However its real promise may be that it can produce oil more efficiently and effectively over the long term.