Hydra-Cell pumps save oil and gas company over $¼million in maintenance

Wanner International is celebrating the third anniversary of installing 15 Hydra-Cell polymer injection API674 pumps to an oil and gas company in India – saving 21,000 tonnes of polymer and maintenance costs of over $ ¼million across their oil fields. The only maintenance required was the recommended oil changes.

The pumps were installed in 10 days in June 2019 after a successful pilot. The multi-national company is using them for alkali surfactant polymer (ASP) injection for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Each day, 1120 m³ of ASP slug is injected through 14 injector wells via two injection manifolds installed within the oil field. This equates to 80 m³ of ASP per day, per well. Each injection manifold has seven injection lines, with each line using an individual reciprocating pump for injection. 

The ASP slug is prepared by mixing 2.5 weight % soda ash, 0.25 % surfactant and 1500 ppm polymer in water, and is stirred using an inline mixer before injection.

Because of Hydra-Cell’s very low-shear pumping action, polymer consumption is reduced by up to 15%. Hydra-Cell’s valve design enables the low-shear pumping action, minimising the polymer shear, and optimising the polymer usage. With no dynamic seals, its seal-less design ensures the polymer is 100% contained, with no leakage there is no waste and keeps it free from oxygen to stop degradation.

These pumps are known to run for 15+ years in other applications. They are very simple to service, with no special tools required for ‘in-field’ inspection of diaphragms and to check valve assemblies. Hydra-Cells can run dry indefinitely and are self-priming. They are highly efficient, with more than 90% energy delivery from pump shaft to hydraulic power, achieving significant energy savings.

Paul Davis, managing director of Wanner International, said: “This was our first project in India using our Hydra-Cell polymer injection API674 pumps, so we’re delighted it’s proved to be so successful for our customer’s enhanced oil recovery application.

“Saving 21,000 tonnes of polymer and over $ ¼million in maintenance across the field is good news for the environment and for this oil and gas company. Combining this with energy saving and low maintenance is helping to reduce operating costs and delivering huge efficiencies for our customer.”

Polymer injection plays an important role in EOR, which is usually the tertiary stage of an oil field after primary production and waterflooding.