A free piston falls to the bottom of a gas well, the well's own pressure drives it back up, and it carries the accumulated liquid with it.
Also called plunger · плунжерный лифт
The cheapest form of lift there is, and the only one that uses no energy but the well's own. A steel plunger falls through the gas to a bumper spring at the bottom; the well is shut in until enough pressure builds beneath it; the plunger rises and lifts the slug of liquid that had collected above.
It is for gas wells loading up with liquid, not for oil wells. Production is cyclic by construction, and a controller decides how long to shut in and when to open.
| What | Why it ends the method |
|---|---|
| Not enough gas to lift the plunger | The well's own energy is the motive force. Below the gas-liquid ratio the depth demands there is nothing to lift with, and the method simply does not work. |
| Liquid rate | One slug a cycle, and the cycles are set by how far the plunger has to travel. Liquid loading beyond that is what ends it. |
| Solids | Sand interferes with the plunger's seal against the tubing and with its fall. |
| Being an oil well | It unloads liquid from a gas well. On an oil well it does nothing at all. |
| Installed, before any workover | $12–35k |
| Years between change-outs, before this well's own conditions | 1.0–3.0 |
| One change-out | $3–8k |
| Fixed operating cost a year, energy excluded | $4–9k |
| Fraction of the year it is producing | 90% |
| Standard | Covers |
|---|---|
| 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 |
|---|---|
| Plunger lift Plungers, lubricators, bumper springs, arrival sensors | ChampionXEndurance Lift SolutionsExtreme TelematicsFlowco Production SolutionsLiberty Lift SolutionsParveen IndustriesPCS FergusonProduction Lift Companies (ProLiftCo)and 6 more who make it · 1 packager, distributor or service company |
| 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 way a gas well is kept alive once it can no longer carry its own liquids: Appalachia — the Marcellus, the Utica and the shallow legacy wells — the Anadarko, the Barnett, the Haynesville, the Hugoton, and the tight gas of the Piceance and of Wyoming. It costs less than any pump and needs no power at the wellsite, which is exactly what a low-rate gas well can afford.
Canada. The Deep Basin, the Montney gas wells, the Horseshoe Canyon coalbed wells and the Foothills. Same reasoning as in the United States, on fewer wells.
Latin America. The gas and condensate wells: the Vaca Muerta wet-gas window, Springhill in Argentina and Chile, the Wilcox and Frio gas of Mexico, and the offshore gas of Trinidad, where the wells load up as they decline.
Middle East. The gas that loads up: the Tuwaiq Mountain unconventional wells in Saudi Arabia, Khazzan and Ghazeer in Oman, Risha in Jordan. Most of the region's gas is high-rate and never needs it.
Europe & North Sea. The mature gas of the North Sea and onshore Europe: Elgin-Franklin and the Rotliegend wells in Britain, Tyra in Denmark, the Dutch Rotliegend and Triassic gas, the German sour gas, the Italian Pliocene wells, Corrib in Ireland, the Polish Miocene gas and Galata in Bulgaria.
Africa. The gas fields as they age: Hassi R'Mel and In Amenas in Algeria, Pande and Temane in Mozambique, the Paddavissie gas-condensate in South Africa, the Moroccan shallow biogenic gas.
Asia-Pacific. Chinese tight and shale gas — Changqing, Fuling and Weiyuan — the Mahakam delta, Lan Tay in Vietnam, Bibiyana in Bangladesh, Malampaya in the Philippines.
Caspian & Central Asia. The ageing gas of the region: Karachaganak, Shah Deniz, Galkynysh, Shurtan and Kandym, and the mature Carboniferous gas of Shebelinka and its neighbours. A gas well that can no longer carry its own water is the classic plunger candidate.
No supplier in Caspian & Central Asia for plunger lift; that comes from outside the region.
Electric submersible pump · Gas lift · Jet pump · Progressing cavity pump · Rod pump