AL
Texas Inc.
Hydraulic Double-Acting Rodless Pumping System
The Hydraulic Double-Acting Rodless Pumping System is an advanced artificial-lift technology that uses water as a hydraulic power medium to lift heavy oil and high-pour-point oil from the well — without a sucker rod. It is engineered to replace surface beam pump units and to substitute traditional thinning approaches such as light-oil dilution, chemical viscosity reduction, and electrical heating, while remaining fully usable in high-deviation, horizontal, and ultra-deep wells without the eccentric wear that plagues rodded systems.
The technology is patent-protected and offers a fundamentally new route for production from deviated and ultra-deep wells, as well as for the effective development of heavy-oil and high-pour-point reservoirs.
System Architecture
The system has two coupled halves — a surface hydraulic pump room and a downhole work unit.
System Architecture
Our Capabilities
Surface Hydraulic Pump Room
Includes a high-pressure plunger pump, an oil-water separator, a hydrodynamic-fluid control display, an inverter controller, and a filter. The plunger pump pressurises water (which can be wastewater from the combination station) and injects it into the downhole work unit.
Downhole Work Unit
Houses the hydraulic double-acting pump, a hydraulic automatic double-composite directional valve, a sand filter, and multi-contactors. The downhole motor converts hydraulic energy into mechanical reciprocation, driving the plunger to lift produced fluid to surface.
How It Works
The high-pressure plunger pump pressurises water from the separator and injects it down the central tube into the downhole work unit. There, the hydraulic double-acting motor converts the hydraulic energy into mechanical reciprocation. The plunger reciprocates up and down, the pump cavity performs suction and lift, and the produced fluid mixes with the lean (return) liquid at the pump outlet — lifting it as an oil-in-water flow up the wellbore.
At surface, the produced fluid passes through the oil-water separator. Separated water is recycled back to the plunger pump for reinjection, while the mixed fluid is sent to the gathering station through a pipeline.
Technical Advantages
No eccentric wear
Eliminating the up-and-down motion of a sucker rod removes eccentric wear, making the system far better suited to deviated, horizontal, and ultra-deep wells than conventional beam pump units.
Heavy-oil cold production
Mixing lean liquid with the produced fluid at the pump outlet substantially raises the in-tubing water cut, allowing heavy oil and high-pour-point oil to be lifted to surface as an oil-in-water flow — enabling cold production without electrical heating, light-oil dilution, or chemical viscosity reducers.
Lower energy consumption
By replacing electrical heating, light-oil dilution, and chemical reagent dosing, the system reduces electricity consumption and operating costs, while serving a wider range of crude qualities than each of those legacy methods on its own.
Strong sand-handling and blockage prevention
A rigid-and-flexible plunger structure with compensating seals strongly resists blockage, while the high in-tube flow velocity (driven by the lean-liquid mixing) provides strong sand transport to surface.
High lift efficiency
The motor and pump act on opposite sides of the same plunger, so pump efficiency does not collapse with depth as it does in rod-driven systems. Energy savings translate directly into lower unit consumption per unit of produced fluid.
Efficient lift in deep and ultra-deep wells
Beam pump units suffer large stroke loss in deep wells due to elastic rod elongation, and tower pumps and ESPs carry high investment, high maintenance, and — for tower pumps — unavoidable rod break risk. The hydraulic rodless system addresses each of those failure modes simultaneously.
Wastewater reinjection function
Uniquely, the system uses combination-station wastewater as its hydrodynamic fluid and supports complete, half, or no injection of that fluid back into the well. This relieves wastewater treatment load at the gathering station, reduces production cost, and embodies the operator’s green-development goals.
Our Capabilities
Comparison with Beam Pumping
Stronger Sand, Wax & Gas Adaptability
Improved handling capability under difficult production conditions.
Improved Reservoir Protection
Continuous fluid production reduces formation disturbance and sand transport.
Simplified Equipment Management
Reduced mechanical complexity compared to conventional rod-driven systems.
Improved Operational Safety
Fewer moving surface components and no rod-tubing wear.
Zero Eccentric Wear
Eliminates one of the most common failure mechanisms in beam-pump operations.