Gas is injected down the annulus and into the tubing through valves, lightening the column until the well flows.
Also called continuous gas lift · газлифт
The only method with nothing mechanical downhole that has to survive the well. Compressed gas enters the tubing through valves set in side-pocket mandrels; the column above the injection point becomes lighter, the bottomhole pressure falls, and the reservoir flows.
It tolerates sand and deviation better than anything else, scales to whatever rate the reservoir gives, and the valves are changed by wireline without pulling tubing. What it needs is gas and compression — which is why it is the default offshore and on a pad where the compression is shared, and hard to justify on one well in the middle of nowhere.
| What | Why it ends the method |
|---|---|
| No gas and no compression within reach | This is the one hard refusal. A compressor for a single well does not pay for itself. |
| Heavy oil that is still thick where it is produced | Injected gas fingers through a dense column instead of lightening it, and the liquid falls back between slugs. Where steam or heat has already thinned the oil this does not apply, which is why gravity alone is the wrong thing to judge it on. |
| Paraffin | Gas expanding up the tubing cools the column, and a well already prone to wax gets a colder place to deposit it. This is the one method that makes that problem worse rather than leaving it alone. |
| Efficiency | The lowest of the practical methods, and it cannot draw a well down as far as a pump. It does not kill the method; it decides the electricity bill. |
| Installed, before any workover | $120–340k |
| Years between change-outs, before this well's own conditions | 3.0–6.0 |
| One change-out | $15–40k |
| Fixed operating cost a year, energy excluded | $14–26k |
| Fraction of the year it is producing | 97% |
| Standard | Covers |
|---|---|
| API Spec 19G1, Side-Pocket Mandrels | Side-pocket mandrels for gas lift — specifying, selecting, designing, manufacturing, quality control, testing and preparation for shipping |
| API Spec 19G2, Flow-Control Devices for Side-Pocket Mandrels, 2nd Edition, August 2018 | The valves that go into the mandrels. This is the current standard where an older document would have said Spec 11V1. |
| API Spec 11D1, Packers and Bridge Plugs, 3rd Edition, April 2015 | Packers and bridge plugs |
| API Spec Q1, Specification for Quality Management System Requirements for Manufacturing Organizations for the Petroleum and Natural Gas Industry | The quality system a manufacturer must hold. In a request this is the line that separates a supplier who can be audited from one who cannot. |
| What has to be bought | Who makes it |
|---|---|
| Gas-lift mandrels Side-pocket mandrels and gas-lift completion hardware | ALTEC Artificial Lift TechnologyBaker HughesFlowco Production SolutionsHunting PLCInterwell (Petroleum Technology Company)MANA Completion SystemsParveen IndustriesPenguin Petroand 4 more who make it |
| Gas-lift valves Gas-lift valves, orifice and injection control | ALTEC Artificial Lift TechnologyBaker HughesFlowco Production SolutionsInterwell (Petroleum Technology Company)Liberty Lift SolutionsMANA Completion SystemsParveen IndustriesPCS Fergusonand 4 more who make it · 4 packagers, distributors and services |
| Compression Gas compression packages and compressor frames | AERZENAriel CorporationBaker HughesBharat Pumps & CompressorsBurckhardt CompressionCaterpillar Oil & GasCumminsFlowco Production Solutionsand 8 more who make it · 10 packagers, distributors and services |
| Automation Field controllers, measurement, optimisation software | ABBAlkhorayef PetroleumAmbyintBaker HughesChampionXEchometereLynx TechnologiesEmersonand 23 more who make it · 6 packagers, distributors and services |
Manufacturers are named first; the whole directory, packagers and services included, is on the suppliers page.
United States. The default first lift on a shale oil well while its own gas is still there: the Permian and the Eagle Ford put a well on gas lift out of flowback and leave it there for years. Offshore, on the shelf and in deepwater, it is the standard — nothing else survives a subsea completion as well as a gas injection point.
Canada. The liquids-rich Montney and Duvernay, the Deep Basin, and offshore Newfoundland. Less of the shale-tail pattern than in the United States, because more of the Canadian oil is heavy and goes to a pump from the start.
Latin America. The gas and condensate wells and the high-gas oil: the Vaca Muerta wet-gas window, Cusiana, Camisea in Peru, and Ku-Maloob-Zaap offshore Mexico, where nitrogen injection keeps the reservoir up and the wells are lifted with gas.
Middle East. Close to universal on the big fields: Ghawar, Safaniya, Manifa, Khurais, Shaybah. Associated gas is there, compression is there, and a completion with no moving parts downhole is what an operator with thousands of wells and a small crew wants.
Europe & North Sea. The other half of the North Sea answer, alongside the submersible: Ekofisk, Johan Sverdrup, Troll, Grane, Gullfaks, Statfjord. Subsea wells in particular — nothing else survives a subsea completion the way a gas injection point does.
Africa. The Niger Delta, onshore and deepwater alike — the Agbada fields, Bonga, Egina — and Gialo in Libya. Associated gas that would otherwise be flared does the lifting.
Asia-Pacific. The deep and the offshore: Tarim in western China, Banyu Urip and the Mahakam delta in Indonesia, Champion West in Brunei, Bach Ho and Su Tu Den in Vietnam.
Caspian & Central Asia. Where the gas is already there and the wells are deep: Tengiz and Kashagan, Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli and Shah Deniz across the sea, Neft Daşları, Goturdepe and Cheleken on the Turkmen shore, and Kandym in Uzbekistan.
No supplier in Caspian & Central Asia for gas-lift mandrels or gas-lift valves; that comes from outside the region.
Electric submersible pump · Jet pump · Plunger lift · Progressing cavity pump · Rod pump