SPE 134907

Continuous Pig Lift: A New Artificial Lift System and Its Field Pilot Test
Zhong Haiquan, Li Yingchuan, State Key Lab of OGRGE·SouthWest Petroleum University; Yu Xin, Wang Zhibin,
SouthWest Petroleum University

Copyright 2010, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition held in Florence, Italy, 19–22 September 2010.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been
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Abstract
Pig lift was firstly proposed and successfully applied in five wells in Brazil in 1996. Pig lift exhibits
many advantages over other artificial lift systems, particularly for the wells with high viscosity oil, waxy
oil, high gas-liquid ratio, low pressure and/or low productivity. However, one of its biggest restrictions is
that the well has to use a U-shaped double completion string if a pig lift system will be installed, as a
result, it is impossible to effectively use formation gas for lifting, and a high-pressure gas resource is
needed. In addition, pig lift as an intermittent production method requires well periodical opening and
shutting-in, which limits well productivity and increases management difficulties.
This paper develops a new artificial lift system, continuous pig lift, by the use of a single completion
string with a series of eccentric units. Retaining all the advantages of the current pig lift, the new system
allows the pig to fall from the annulus between the tubing and casing down to the downhole tubing
coupling. A valve device is designed to cut off both high and low pressures in the wellhead and launch
the pig. With no need of extra gas resource, this system effectively uses formation gas to push the pig into
production string and achieves continuous production.
The developed system was installed in one well in Sichuan Gas Field of China. The system is stable
and has significantly increased production rate in comparison with conventional continuous gas lift.
Through various field pilot experiments, pig size, type and launching frequency are found to be key
factors dominating the performance of a continuous pig lift system and the optimum values of those
factors are then determined.

Introduction
With the energy and deliverability of oil and gas field development continuing decline, the slippage
loss will become gradually severe in the continuous gas-lift process, which causes high back pressure
towards bottom hole, as a result, gas injection pressure and gas injection rate increase with the same
liquid production, and lift efficiency decreases. It is the key problem that the slippage phenomenons of
liquid is getting more and more serious in gas-lift two phases flowing, the effective solutions to the
problem are to apply pig lift, it was firstly proposed and successfully applied in five wells in Brazil [1] in
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1996. The principles are through forming the interface of solid between production liquid and lift gas and
to use the upward moving pig to push liquid inside the tubing, which can decrease slippage loss and
increase lift efficiency, but it is an intermittent production method that requires well periodical opening
and shutting-in, which limits well productivity and increases management difficulties.
Subsequently, Wu [2] developed a set of apparatus and methods for the continuous pig lift system
with U-shape double strings, which can decrease the slippage loss to improve the gas lift efficiency. Li et
al[3]. conducted extensive experimental tests for the continuous pig lift on a 14.2 m high, 40.0 mm
diameter U-shape transparent pipeline system to acquire flow and pigging data and study the effect
factors.
Although the pig lift exhibits many advantages over other artificial lift systems, pig lift method with
U-shape double strings is easy to be limited by size of casing and very complicated in the construction
operation process. Thus, the large restrictions exist in the field application.
A new artificial lift system (Fig.1), continuous pig lift, has been developed by the use of a single
completion string with a series of eccentric units. The system allows the pig to fall from the annulus
between the tubing and casing down to the downhole tubing coupling. A valve device is designed to cut
off both high and low pressures in the wellhead and launch the pig. This system can effectively use
formation gas to push the pig into production string and achieve continuous production.

System Equipment
The equipments used in new artificial lift system(Fig.1) are much the same with that of continuous
pig lift system[3] with U-shape double strings, consisting essentially of tail tubing, downhole tubing
coupling (Fig.2), double tubing string, bowl shaped device (Fig.3), eccentric unit (Fig.4), pig separator
(Fig.5), launching pig device (Fig.6), pressure regulator valve (Fig.7) and measuring and controlling
system.
In the new system, the tail tubing is installed to the bottom of production zone, which can separate
effectively gas and liquid, as a result, liquid flows into the tail tubing, and gas flows upward from the
annulus between the tail tubing and casing to the bowl shaped device, then gas pushes pig from double
tubing string into downhole tubing coupling and production tubing. Eccentric unit and bowl shaped
device that were specially developed for the new system. The eccentric units are fixed in the tubing to
allow the pig to fall from the annulus between the tubing and casing down to the bowl shaped device
which are connected in double tubing string.
Pig separator installed in the wellhead, can separate pig from the three-phase mixture (gas, liquid
and pig). Launching pig device is a valve that can cut off both high and low pressures in the wellhead and
launch the pig. Pressure regulator valve is used to regulate the casing pressure to the work pressure of the
lanching pig device. The last major equipment is measuring and controlling system, the function of which
is to control the launching pig device to work at launching pig frequency and gather data of the 2m length
nipple differential pressure and pressure in the wellhead.

Continuous Pig Lift Operation

A given amount of pigs were put in the high pressure hose and launching pig device before the
continuous pig lift operation begins. Next, the measuring and controlling system starts to work, and then
SPE 134907 3

launching pig device will launch one by one the pigs according to the launching pig frequency, the pigs
fall along the annulus between the tubing and casing down to the downhole tubing coupling via the bowl
shaped device and double tubing string. After a certain period of time, the pig initiates the rise through
the production tubing, causing the displacement to the surface of the liquid accumulated in the wellbore.
Next, the three-phase mixture gets to pig separator to separate, then the pig separated reaches the
launching pig device via the high pressure hose to wait for the second cycle, simultaneously, gas and
liquid flow into the pipeline to separator.

Field Pilot Test

The continuous pig lift with a single completion string has been installed in Long32 well in Sichuan
Gas Field of China. The well data is put in Tab.1. Installation of the new system on the well was done
firstly in Feb.2008, where 49 eccentric units are used and the distribution is showed in Fig.8. In the
beginning, the installation is very successful, the liquid production rate increases from 33m3/d to 56m3/d,
and the gas rate increases by 6000m3/d or so,on the other hand, running time of pig is about 8 minutes per
cycle. Afterward, however, the tubing rupture occurred because of the tubing quality. As a result, the well
was forced to close.
Installation of the new system on the well was done secondly in Dec.2008, and the eccentric unit
was removed to simplify the construction procedure and study its effect.
Pilot test are conducted after gas lift unloading is over, test steps and phenomenons are as follows:
(1) The first nylon pig (37mm diameter) was launched at 13:25 on the 19th, and then the pig
returned to the surface at 13:40, obviously, the interval is 15 minutes, Fig.9 shows before and
after change of pig.
(2) The nylon pig was launched again at 14:12, as expected, the pig retured to the surface at 14:27,
the interval is still 15minutes.
(3) The pig was launched respectively at 14:29, 14:45 and 15:03, and then the pig retured to the
surface at 14:44, 15:00 and 15:18, the intervals are same as the two previous.
The wellhead pressure and differential pressure were recorded during the test. Fig.10 shows the
change of the wellhead pressure and differential pressure. Both wellhead pressure and differential
pressure were very low before the pig is going to return, which indicates only gas flowing out of
wellhead, and the intervals is too long, so it is necessary to increase the launching pig frequency.
The maximum wellhead pressure in Fig.10 is 2.18MPa, the minimum 1.48MPa; and the maximum
differential pressure 45.92kPa, the minimum 1.9kPa. According to Fig.10, the further analysis shows the
average interval between A and B (A-B interval) is 47s, where liquid slug flow out of the wellhead; B-C
interval is 128s, only gas flows out of the wellhead; C-D interval is 588s, gas entrains liquid to flow out
of the wellhead; D-E interval is 220s, pig pushes liquid slug from the bottomhole to the wellhead.
The further test was done on the December 20-29, 2008. The key phenomenons are as followings:
(1) The specific gravity of Polytetrafluoroethylene pig is less than that of the formation water, so
the pig floats in the high pressure hose and launching pig device, which causes the pig can’t be
put into the annulus at launching pig frequency.
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(2) The leakage loss is very great for the 36mm diameter pig. As a result, the liquid is often unable
to be removed when the pig returns to the surface.
(3) The time interval is about 15 minutes for 37mm nylon pig, and 8-15minutes for 38mm hollow
steel pig.
(4) Fig.11 shows the change of the wellhead pressure and differential pressure during the
December 27-28, where the launching pig frequency is 0.04min-1, and the pig is 38mm hollow
steel pig.
(5) The production rate with 38mm hollow steel pig increases from 47.6m3/d to 55.2m3/d when the
launching pig frequency increases from 0.04min-1 to 0.2 min-1.

Conclusion
From above, the following conclusions are made in this paper.
(1) A new artificial lift method, named continous pig lift with a single completion string, was
developed.
(2) The well can install continuous pig lift without eccentric unit if tubing diameter is less than
one-third of casing diameter and the well trajectory is very straight.
(3) The hollow steel pig is more suitable for the continuous pig lift than the nylon pig, and the
bigger pig is better to enhance production than the smaller if possible, moreover, the launching
pig frequency should be optimized through the test.
(4) Continuous pig lift can be regarded as one of the main selections when slippage loss is very
serious and the casing diameter is enough.
(5) The continuous pig lift is not very suitable for highly deviated wells where the distribution of
eccentric units is very complicated because tubing-casing relative position is more difficult to
determine.

Acknowledgments
The authors thank the Shunan Gas Field and Zhongyuan oilfield for financial support.

Reference
1. Lima, P.C.R., Pig Lift: A New Artificial Lift Method; paper SPE 36598 presented at the SPE Annual
Technical Conference and Exhibition, Denver, CO, 6-9 October 1996.
2. Wu, C., Apparatus and Method for Production of Oil by Pig Lift; International Patent,
PCT/CN97/00074, 1997.
3. Li, Y., Zhou, J., Liu, J. and Wang, Q., Numerical Simulation of New Continuous Pig Gas-lift Process;
Natural Gas Industry, Vol. 24, No. 3, 2004, pp. 91-94.(in Chineses)
4. Lima, P.C.R., Method and Apparatus for Intermittent Production of Oil with a Mechanical Interface;
U.S. Patent No. 5671813, 30 September 1997.
5. Li, Y., Qin, B. and Liu, Y., Experimental Study of Pig Lift; Natural Gas Industry, Vol. 24, No. 11,
2004, pp. 103-105. (in Chineses)
6. Zhong, H., Numerical Simulation and Application of New Gas Lift Production Methods; P.H.D thesis,
Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China, 2009.(in Chineses)
SPE 134907 5

Fig.1 Continuous pig lift system

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Fig.2 Downhole Tubing Coupling Fig.3 Bowl Shaped Device

Fig.4 Eccentric Unit

Fig.5 Pig Separator Fig.6 Launching Pig Device

Fig.7 Pressure Regulator Valve

SPE 134907 7

North Offset, m

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
0

300

Eccentric Unit

600
Measured Depth, m

900

1200

1500

1800

2100

Fig.8 the Distribution of Eccentric Unit

Before After
Fig.9 the Change of Pig
8 SPE 134907

50 2.5

40 2

wellhead pressure ，MPa

differential pressure，kPa

30 1.5
differential pressure
wellhead pressure
20 1

10 0.5

0 0
14:16 14:24 14:31 14:38 14:45 14:52 15:00 15:07 15:14 15:21

time，m
Fig.10 the change of wellhead pressure and differential pressure (37mm nylon pig)
3 115
油压 差压

2.5 95

2 75
油压，MPa

差压，kPa
1.5 55

1 35

0.5 15

0 -5
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21
时间，h
Fig.11 the change of wellhead pressure and differential pressure (38mm hollow steel pig)

Table 1 well data

name unit value
Casing inner diameter m 0.156
Tubing inner diameter m 0.040
Water cut % 100
Reservior static pressure MPa 11.5
Well depth m 2193
Average GLR m /m3
3
240
Wellhead pressure MPa 1.8
Water specific gravity dimensionless 1.02
Gas specific gravity dimensionless 0.64
Productivity index m3/d·MPa 16
Depth of downhole tubing coupling m 2100