The cost-benefit ratio of automation

Photo: Mike Byfield

have reached the takeoff point.

Kelly Woolsey, Automation Manager, Kudu Industries

22 December 2008 oil & gas inquirer

 Patch Profile

The end
of windshield time Kelly Woolsey, a lifer in production automation, says field operation is
moving quickly from the truck to the office
by Mike Byfield

When Kelly Woolsey was seven years old, his father took him on his field rounds as an oil battery opera-
tor, shooting fluid levels and making pump adjustments. Today, Woolsey is automation manager for Kudu
Industries Inc., operating wells as far away as Alabama and California from an office in his home. “On
a good day, an operator can physically visit 40 wells at most. If your pumping systems are fully auto-
mated, one operator can handle 200 wells from a comfortable location. That’s a decisive improvement,”
the Stettler, Alta., resident explains.
Woolsey, 48, has been helping develop occurs, the operator will send out a spe- production system all fits together. So
oilfield automation tools for more than cialist like an electrician or instrumenta- I jumped over to operations with pro-
20 years. “When we got started, it was tion technician.” ducing companies,” Woolsey says. As
hard work to persuade a company to His own career in the patch started an operator, he worked for Merland
install our equipment on one or two as an electrican, followed by instru- Exploration, Pangaea Petroleum, and
wells,” he recalls. Today, producers mentation technology. But his boy- Legacy Petroleum, w inding up as a
around the world are willing to launch hood experience as an operator’s son in field superintendent.
large-scale initiatives, even on their
first attempt at automation. This fall,
for example, the Kudu manager’s travel
“On a good day, an operator can
schedule includes Australia, Mexico, physically visit 40 wells at most. If your
and Belize, consulting on projects that
involve as many as 250 wells. pumping systems are fully automated, one
“The cost-benefit ratio of automa-
tion have reached the takeoff point.
operator can handle 200 wells.”
Automation saves money, and it also helps ­‑ Kelly Woolsey, Automation Manager, Kudu Industries Inc.
address our industry’s persistent short-
Photo: Mike Byfield

age of skilled field personnel,” Woolsey
comments. “With our systems installed,
an office-based operator can remotely
access all the data and make any adjust-
ment that is traditionally done by going
to the wellsite. If a more serious problem
Alberta oil towns like Stettler (where
he was bor n), Brooks, Fox Creek,
and Slave Lake left a deep mark. “My
involvement in construction and instal-
lation [his main work as an electri-
cian] got me interested in how the
At a Calgar y oil show, the well-
qualified Albertan came across Delta-X
Corporation, a Houston-based pioneer
in oilfield automation. “The company
had been started by Fount McKee, a for-
mer NASA scientist, who’d developed

oil & gas inquirer December 2008 23

 Patch Profile
Photo Courtesy of Kudu Pump
Lufkin’s aggressive acquisitions of Nabla and Delta-X led to the development of SAM Well Manager, named for Sam Gibbs.
a microprocessor-based well controller.
For me, this was really fascinating stuff,”
Woolsey says. In 1986, he and two part-
ners formed Delta-X Canada Ltd., selling
the American outfit’s automation prod-
ucts and services.
In a rod pumping system (the clas-
sic “horsehead”), a condition called
“pump off” occurs when the fluid level
in the wellbore no longer completely fills
the pump. Continuing to pump in that
state triggers pounding that will dam-
age the pump, wear the rod string and
tubing excessively, and can also damage
equipment if the shocks become power-
ful. The Delta-X rod pump controller,
first developed in 1972, could detect the
pump off state, shut down operation for
a specified period until fluid refilled the
wellbore, and then automatically restart
operation.
In 1983, Delta-X introduced a micro-
processor-based pump off controller.
This device gave operators far greater
flexibility in defining the pump off state.
It could also track flow rates, tempera-
tures, pressures, compressors, injec-
tion pumps, tank levels, and more. In
24 December 2008 oil & gas inquirer
addition, the microprocessor enabled
remote monitoring and control of a well
by radio or hardwire communications.
That meant an office-based computer
could continuously monitor pumping
operations.
Delta-X’s primary competitor was
Nabla Corporation, founded by Sam
“[Sam] Gibbs worked out a downhole
mathematical algorithm that took into
account rod elasticity, along with the
properties of oil, gas, and water weight, to
isolate what was happening to the pump.”
­‑ Kelly Woolsey, Automation Manager, Kudu Industries Inc.
Gibbs in 1971. With an engineering
degree, a master’s in mathematics, and
a doctorate, this Texas A&M gradu-
ate researched irregular ocean waves
for Shell. That study led him to create
Nabla in Midland, Texas. By the mid-
1980s, Nabla offered submersible elec-
tric pump diagnosis, pump off control
based on a fresh concept (motor output
power derived from motor speed), and
a computerized dynamometer (which
measures torque and rotational speed).
Remote computer monitoring and diag-
nosis of production systems was possi-
ble via telephone or radio.
Although Nabla and Delta-X com-
peted across oilfield automation, Gibbs’
strength lay in software while McKee
excelled at hardware. “Gibbs worked out
a downhole mathematical algorithm that
took into account rod elasticity, along
with the properties of oil, gas, and water
weight, to isolate what was happening
to the pump,” Woolsey says. “That equa-
tion has been improved over time. Nabla
developed a downhole card that was
Suite 300, 110 - 8th Avenue SW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2P 1B3
 Patch Profile
Photo Courtesy of Kudu Pump
Automation came later for PCP pumps.
more exact with respect to fillage into
the pump. From downhole fillage, fluid
load [weight], pump intake pressure,
and other factors, we can assess every-
thing that’s occurring from the pump
seating nipple right to the brake of the
pumpjack.”
The production systems specialist
says this information enables operators
to remain within the limitations of the
pump motor, gearbox, rods, and avail-
able fluid. “From pump off control, we’ve
added the means to control pump speed
using variable frequency drive technol-
ogy,” he explains. “By matching fluid
inflow with speed, we can produce every
available drop of oil without harmful
effects on the equipment.”
When Woolsey, then in his mid-20s,
co-founded Delta-X Canada, the auto-
mated paradigm appeared irresist-
ible. However, he soon learned that the
petroleum industry prefers to innovate
at the pace of evolution, not revolution.
“We struggled for years to get the con-
cept out,” he remembers. “Our company
contributed to a couple of pump off con-
trol projects that were either the first
in Canada or among the first.” Those
projects included Esso Resources at
Drayton Valley, Alta., and Shell Canada
at House Mountain, Alta. (between Swan
Hills and Lesser Slave Lake).
In 1995, Woolsey convinced McKee
to make a prototype pump off controller
for progressing cavity pumps (PCPs),
then becom i ng prevalent i n heav y
oi l f ields arou nd Lloyd m i nster a nd
Bakersfield, California. This technology
26 December 2008 oil & gas inquirer
was developed by Calgary-based Kudu.
PCPs employ a screw-like steel rotor
inside a stator, which is lined with a flex-
ible elastomer. “If you pump off PCPs, the
elastomers burn very quickly,” Woolsey
says. PanCanadian (which subsequently
formed part of EnCana) allowed Delta-X
to field test its patented prototype con-
troller on its PCP systems, and that
experiment went well.
I n 1997, Lu f k i n I ndustr ies, I nc.
rocked the sector by buying Nabla, fol-
lowed a year later by the acquisition of
Delta-X. Lufkin, which manufactures
rod pu mps a nd gea rboxes (“du mb
iron”), moved quickly to dominate oil-
field automation. The result was the
Sam Well Manager platform (named for
Gibbs). This system can control pump-
ing from a downhole card, surface card,
or motor speed. Its wave equation algo-
rithm calculates a downhole card on
every stroke. Sam can control both rod
pump and injection wells.
In 2005, Woolsey helped prompt
Lufkin to revisit the progressing cav-
ity pump prototype controller. A team
of three members, including himself,
designed, tested, and implemented the
PCP variant of Sam Well Manager. While
According to Woolsey, Lufkin and
Kudu can now provide enough additional
crude output to justify the necessary
investment in SCADA (supervisory
control and data acquisition) by producers.
searching for a way to reliably mea-
sure fluid flow, Woolsey came across a
differential pressure flow meter used
in food processing. Known as a wedge
meter, this concept has been success-
fully adapted to heavy crudes by Lufkin
Automation.
When Woolsey brought the first PCP
Sam through Calgary’s airport, cus-
toms officials subjected him to a long
inquisition about just what the con-
traption was. Soon EnCana applied the
technology to four wells in its Pelican
Lake-Wabasca heavy oil operation. “If
operators set pump speed manually
by guesswork, they tend to underdis-
place,” Woolsey says. (In other words,
they retain more fluid than necessary
in the wellbore to ensure that the pump
does not enter the pump off state.)
The Lufkin technology enabled opera-
tors to pump more aggressively with
confidence, significantly improv ing
oi l pr o duct ion . E nC a n a’s b ot t om
line benefited by $365,000 annually,
prompting an order for 10 more Sam
PCP Well Managers.
As Lufkin Automation’s PCP prod-
uct manager, Woolsey recognized that
Kudu has strong credibility among pro-
gressing cavity pump customers. Under
a deal that he negotiated between the
two firms, Kudu now sells Sam PCP
Well Managers along with its pumps
and driveheads. In the process, Woolsey
became Kudu’s automation manager.
“The pullthrough from this alliance has
been tremendous over the past year,” he
says. Although the partnership has com-
petition in oilfield automation, notably
from Weatherford International Ltd., its
business is thriving.
To report data back to an operator
far from the well, an automated pump
control system requires a satellite,
cellphone, radio, or comparable com-
munication capability. To make adjust-
ments to that pumping unit, the operator
also needs the computerized control
capability of a SCADA (supervisory con-
trol and data acquisition) installation.
The expense of SCADA has historically
been a barrier to implementing oilfield
automation.
According to Woolsey, Lufkin and
Kudu can now provide enough addi-
tiona l cr ude output to justi f y the
necessar y investment in SCADA by
producers. Also contributing to that
cost-benefit equation are the tighten-
ing shortages of qualified field person-
nel, cheaper telecommunications, and
the rise in oil prices since the turn of
the century. “Production automation is
in breakthrough mode globally,” the vet-
eran specialist says. “For oilfield opera-
tors, windshield time is going to become
a memory.”