Failure Analysis Breakout Session Comments

One Definition of Insanity Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.

Failures Before discussing failure rates, you need to agree and accept a definition of failure. Need to stop accepting failures before failures can be stopped You may not have time to fix failures but you always have time to repair them AGAIN! Failures will stop once the root cause of failure is corrected 5 whys for RCFA 2012 Rod Pumping Workshop

5 Whys WHY did the well fail? Rod part WHY did the rod part? Body wear WHY was there wear? Rod buckling Why did the rods buckle? Compressive loading Why was there compressive loading? Pump fit was too tight

Don’t be Afraid to Act You don’t always have all the information you need to define the problem Be willing to commit to an hypothesis – It may not be right but you can eliminate one of the wrong reasons Need a culture that doesn’t accept failure AND doesn’t try to blame someone for it 2012 Rod Pumping Workshop

RCFA Concepts Get it right – not get it on Job backlog is a necessary evil Review before pulling Look at the whole picture – Ask WHY? five times Be willing to respond to change Bring in the experts Post job review DOCUMENT THE WORK 2012 Rod Pumping Workshop

Save Money Preventing failures saves money Focus on problem wells but don’t obsess – Some wells are bad apples – Better success on wells that have some, but not many failures – Review wells that don’t fail to find out why Consider life cycle costs to maximize value – Tough with OPEX/CAPEX constraints 2012 Rod Pumping Workshop

Data Collection You need to have data to battle opinion A database has to capture information about all aspects of well construction and operation There was an expressed desire for a commercial product that would capture and “adequate” amount of data that could be easily retrieved for reports or analysis Need to capture “why” of failures Responsibility for timely, accurate data entry must be defined 2012 Rod Pumping Workshop

Get Help Be willing to share learnings – There isn’t enough time for each of us to gain experience on everything Look at how others do things but don’t blindly compare or copy Share best practices Network with others and attend workshops Work with suppliers – don’t just accept/reject recommendation 2012 Rod Pumping Workshop

Specific Issues Impact of dogleg severity on failures Rotating rods in deviated wells Sinker bars in deviated holes Sorry separation or engineered gas separators – UT centrifugal separator – Need bigger holes! Predicting failure (proactive pulling) Consider payout for repair work before rigging up 2012 Rod Pumping Workshop

Failure Frequency Definitions misunderstood Different ways to measure All have strengths and weaknesses MTTF - Mean Time To Failure Sum of run time for failed and operating wells divided by the number of failures MTBF - Mean Time Between Failure Sum of time between well repairs plus the run time of current wells since installation divided by the number of failures Failure Frequency (FF) Sum of run time for failed wells divided by number of failures