PERFORMANCE OF GROUND CHAIN DRIVES OF ROD PUMP UNITS FOR HIGH-VISCOSITY OIL EXTRACTION

In the development of deposits at a late stage of design, especially during high-viscosity oil extraction in difficult operating conditions, the question of revising and selection of promising equipment and technologies occurs. Technologies improve production efficiency of hydrocarbon raw materials at minimal cost. High viscosity oil occurs not only at a late stage of development, but also during the development of new fields. Proof is from the analysis of the activities of oil producing enterprises in Kazakhstan and Russia, as well as some companies from far abroad. Work experience of scientific and design organizations and production associations of Tatarstan, one of the main oil regions of Russia has shown the promise of application in fields of OJSC “Tatneft” of chain drives (CD) as part of plunger rod borehole pumping units (RBPU) instead of the usual balancing pumping units (PU). In Kazakhstan, such technologies were first applied at the Zhanazhol high-viscosity oil fields (Mangistau region) based on Chinese-made RBPU chain drives. It should be noted that there are also other fields in Kazakhstan, which, in terms of oil properties and geological and technical conditions, are identical with the above. The use of the RBPU CD in these fields would give significant results in improving the efficiency of wells operation. An analysis of previous studies has shown that, in addition to advantages, CDs have several disadvantages, which, first, are the presence of nodes of increased wear, especially at the junction of the converting mechanism and its individual load-bearing elements, which are caused by dynamic loads. These shortcomings require the development of scientifically grounded methods for assessing the bearing structural elements of the chain transmission for strength, considering the peculiarities of the operation of the RBPU. In this work, the authors substantiated the basic principles of ensuring the operability of the CD RBPU when acting on the bearing elements of dynamic loads.