Flow Control, Flow Control April 2017

Best Practices Applications Well servicing innovation during a downturn Aging equipment and a down market drive development of new pumps By Jim Yanus Gardner Denver F rom rig count to head count the economic downturn of the last few years has been rough on the oil and gas industry During that time operators upstream equipment contractors and everyone in between had to determine how to make more or do more with less Compounding this problem was the uncertain political outcome that put any sort of market rebound in the air and companies with massive credit lines suddenly at risk of bankruptcy or being acquired Although exploration and production E P companies took measures to reduce costs and delay any capital expenditures to remain competitive in the market throughout 2015 and 2016 tightened budgets and bootstrapped strategies have had significant impacts on the equipment in the industry How did we get here Prior to 2015 as the hydraulic fracturing industry grew so did the demands and expectations placed on well servicing pump units With wells being drilled deeper and with higher pressures and more challenges the greater the power requirements became on hydraulic fracturing pumps When the market dropped E P companies were forced to scale back their equipment maintenance programs placing their drilling and upstream equipment in vulnerable positions Many operators and oil field equipment providers depend on aggressive schedules or preventative maintenance programs to keep equipment functioning and operations moving forward With less capital however these maintenance programs have been tightened or altogether abandoned in favor of reactive or run to failure maintenance programs that require much less upfront investment Companies began pushing equipment to max capacity to do more with less In many instances maintenance managers or field personnel mixed and matched pumps and fluid ends to make quick repairs and push equipment further which only complicated the matter and resulted in bigger problems down the road With experts forecasting a busy 2017 for the oil and gas industry operators are now looking to upgrade equipment Well servicing The average hydraulic fracturing pump can run 5000 hours before a major overhaul with a standard maintenance plan However most modern fracking sites run 24 hour operating schedules with less time between stages and minimal preventive maintenance This results in accumulating pumping hours much sooner along with higher With experts forecasting a busy 2017 for the oil and gas industry operators are now looking to upgrade equipment New pumps with greater horsepower and lower operating costs are a result of what manufacturers learned as they continued to push equipment to maximum capacity throughout the recent economic downturn Image courtesy of Gardner Denver 34 April 2017 Flow Control