Lloydminster – Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico are almost as familiar to CJS Coiled Tubing Supply Ltd. as its own base in Lloydminster.

Energy companies working gas and deep shale plays in southern United States have come to rely on CJS’s Flatpak encapsulated coiled tubing to keep old wells in a productive state to make a buck. “The gas and deep shale markets have accepted it very well,” said Collin Morris, CJS president at the Lloydminster shop. “The deliquification market, in general, has been very accepting, especially for low rate deliquification using hydraulic submersible pumps and gas lifts as well as chemical injections.“The Flatpak in a pump combination is typically used in end-of-life or lower volume wells that are experiencing some liquid loading problems. “You would run a pump and the Flatpak to pump the water off to allow the gas to flow to surface.” From two to five encapsulated conduits would be used for deliquification applications with the most common hydraulic set up using two hydraulic Flatpak conduits with one production conduit. Flatpak can encapsulate any diameter of coiled tubing or electrical conduits, and is deployed by a conventional shallow coiled tubing unit equipped with a specialized hanger and wellhead system. CJS has installed hundreds of thousands of feet of Flatpak at well depths ranging from 1,500 to 8,000 ft. with the ability to convey hydraulic submersible pumps and jet pumps. “Depending on what your application is, the main advantage of the Flatpak is having the multiple conduits,” said Morris. “You are able to provide multiple clean circuits for drive fluids and electronics as well as multiple injection and production ports for various chemicals, gases and fluids.”  While hydraulic artificial lift systems require multiple strings, Flatpak re- duces the cost and complexity by combining all tubing into one uniform thermoplastic body. 

Morris says the Flatpak product was intended for the local Canadian gas market, but the collapse of gas prices and higher exploration costs forced the company to find new markets. “Most of our customers are in the United States,” said Morris. “They seem to have a more favourable economic profile for gas. “They are close to market and they don’t have as many transportation and processing fees that the Canadian market does. “Up until recently, probably 90 per cent of our work has been gas, whether it is coalbed methane or conventional gas. “Because some of the production tubes are smaller, it is easier to lift lower rates of water than it is oil. Flatpak is well suited for gas because of the low liquid lifting rates. Recently, we’ve gone a little ‘more oily,’” Morris said.

Quantum Downhole Systems in Calgary has been using a dual Flatpak licensed by CJS in combination with their own jet pump to perform wellbore cleanouts on heavy oil horizontal wells and some shallow gas wells. “Quantum has seen a great success on the on oil well side so hopefully that continues,” said Morris. “We are trying to get ‘more oily’ because I would like to stay home a bit more.

“A lot of our volume has been in the southern States which means we spend a lot of time travelling. If there is any way I get a little more local, I would like to do that.’ Morris may have his way as CJS is launching a new progressive cavity pump application for the heavy oil market this month. The product is being put to the test by a major oil producer in the Lloydminster area. “We expect to do more business in Canada on the oil side if our progressive cavity initiative works out,” said Morris who will have more to say about it when performance data is available. “We could also be doing a few condensate wells this year using Flatpak with hydraulic submersible reciprocating pumps. As far as the gas market goes, I don’t anticipate an increase demand for Flatpak there.”

Pipeline News - February 2011