A surface unit works a rod string up and down; a plunger at the bottom of it lifts the well a stroke at a time.
Also called beam pump · sucker-rod pump · pumpjack · nodding donkey · ШГН
The oldest and by a wide margin the most numerous form of artificial lift. A beam at surface converts a motor's rotation into a reciprocating stroke, a string of steel or fibreglass rods carries that stroke to the bottom of the well, and a plunger and two valves move a column of liquid up the tubing one stroke at a time.
Everything about it is repairable in the field with equipment the operator already owns, which is why it dominates the long tail of low-rate wells: a well that makes ten barrels a day for twenty years is a rod-pump well almost everywhere in the world.
| What | Why it ends the method |
|---|---|
| Gas at the pump intake | The pump compresses gas instead of moving liquid, and at a high enough gas-liquid ratio it stops filling at all. This is what ends rod pumping on a gassy well long before any mechanical limit is reached. |
| Rod-on-tubing wear in a deviated or horizontal hole | Side loading through a build section wears rods and tubing against each other. Rod guides and continuous rod reduce it; they do not remove it. |
| Solids | Sand cuts the plunger-barrel fit and the valve seats. It is survivable with the right pump and it shortens every run. |
| The rod string's own weight | Deep, a steel string cannot carry its own buoyant weight within the allowable stress, and fibreglass is used instead — lighter, and worse in compression. |
| Installed, before any workover | $110–230k |
| Years between change-outs, before this well's own conditions | 1.5–3.0 |
| One change-out | $18–45k |
| Fixed operating cost a year, energy excluded | $12–22k |
| Fraction of the year it is producing | 95% |
| Standard | Covers |
|---|---|
| API Spec 11E, Specification for Pumping Units (Errata 1 August 2015, Addendum 1 April 2018) | Beam pumping units — design and rating. |
| API Spec 11B, Sucker Rods, Polished Rods and Liners, Couplings, Sinker Bars, Polished Rod Clamps, Stuffing Boxes and Pumping Tees, 27th Edition | The rod string and its surface connections. The Monogram form lists steel and fibre-reinforced sucker rods separately, which matters here: the deep envelope depends on which is run. |
| API Spec 11AX, Specification for Subsurface Sucker Rod Pump Assemblies, 13th Edition, May 2015 | Subsurface sucker-rod pumps and their components |
| API TR 11L, Design Calculations for Sucker Rod Pumping Systems (Conventional Units) | The design procedure for beam pumping; successor to API RP 11L, including its natural-frequency form No = 245,000/L |
| API RP 11BR, Recommended Practice for the Care and Handling of Sucker Rods, 3rd Edition November 2009, reaffirmed July 2020 | Handling, inspection and care of the rod string in service |
| 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 |
|---|---|
| Pumping units Pumping units (beam, long-stroke, hydraulic) | BOMCO (Baoji Oilfield Machinery, CNPC)ChampionXConfindKerui GroupLiberty Lift SolutionsLufkinRedhead Artificial LiftRIGRSand 7 more who make it · 2 packagers, distributors and services |
| Rod pumps Subsurface sucker-rod pumps, barrels, valves | Black Gold Pump & SupplyCavins Oil Well ToolsChampionXConfindEndurance Lift SolutionsHarbison-FischerKerui GroupLiberty Lift Solutionsand 13 more who make it · 1 packager, distributor or service company |
| Sucker rods Sucker rods, continuous rod, polished rods, couplings | Alberta Oil ToolBlack Gold Pump & SupplyChampionXConfindEndurance Lift SolutionsFiberodHilong GroupJubail Energy Services Company (JESCO)and 15 more who make it |
| Rod-lift drives Rod-lift drives, pump-off controllers, dynamometers | ABBAmbyintBaker HughesChampionXEchometerLiberty Lift SolutionsLifting SolutionsLufkinand 5 more who make it · 2 packagers, distributors and services |
| Wellheads Wellheads, stuffing boxes, polished-rod hardware | Black Gold Pump & SupplyBOMCO (Baoji Oilfield Machinery, CNPC)Cavins Oil Well ToolsConfindHilong GroupHunting PLCInnovex InternationalJubail Energy Services Company (JESCO)and 16 more who make it · 3 packagers, distributors and services |
Manufacturers are named first; the whole directory, packagers and services included, is on the suppliers page.
United States. The largest rod-pump population anywhere, and the method almost every American oil well ends on. It carries the stripper tail across Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Appalachia, the California heavy-oil fields once the rates fall, and the last fifteen years of a shale well after gas lift has run out of gas to lift with.
Canada. The conventional light-oil tail in Alberta and Saskatchewan, and the second half of a Bakken or Cardium well's life. Where the oil is heavy and sandy — Lloydminster, Clearwater — the progressing cavity pump takes the work instead, which is the one clear difference from the American pattern.
Latin America. The mature onshore fields, which in Latin America means most of the oil: Comodoro Rivadavia and the Barrancas / Vizcacheras area in Argentina, La Cira-Infantas and the Dina / Tello group in Colombia. It is also where a Vaca Muerta well ends up once the flush production is over.
Middle East. Uncommon, and where it appears the reason is always the same — the oil is heavy, or the field is old, or both: Yibal and Fahud in Oman, Awali in Bahrain, Bahariya in Egypt, Mardin in Türkiye. On the giant light-oil carbonates a beam unit has nothing to do.
Europe & North Sea. The mature onshore, which in Europe is a long list of small fields: Wytch Farm in England, Rühlermoor in Germany, Gela in Italy, Chaunoy in France, Patos-Marinza in Albania, Ticleni in Romania, Algyő in Hungary, Matzen in Austria. Offshore it does not appear: a beam unit needs deck space and a workover crew, and neither is cheap on a platform.
Africa. The mature onshore: the Agbada fields of the Niger Delta, the Cabinda onshore in Angola, Rabi-Kounga and the Ezanga permits in Gabon, Rio del Rey in Cameroon, El Borma in Tunisia.
Asia-Pacific. China runs one of the largest rod-lift fleets in the world: Daqing, Shengli, Changqing, Karamay, and the Qinshui coalbed wells. Indonesia's Duri, a steamflood, is the same picture — hot heavy oil, low rate per well, thousands of wells.
Caspian & Central Asia. Waxy, heavy and old: Uzen, whose pour point stands above ground temperature, North Buzachi, Kumkol and Kalamkas, Balakhany-Sabunchi-Ramany and Neft Daşları in Azerbaijan, Goturdepe on the Turkmen shore, and the mature Carboniferous wells of Shebelinka.
No supplier in Caspian & Central Asia for rod-lift drives; that comes from outside the region.
Electric submersible pump · Gas lift · Jet pump · Plunger lift · Progressing cavity pump