Downhole Gas Separators-A Laboratory and Field Study

Downhole gas separators are often the most inefficient part of a sucker rod pump system. This paper presents laboratory data on the performance of five different gas separator designs. Only continuous flow was studied. Field data is presented on one of the designs. The field data indicates that success or failure of the gas separator is dependent upon the fluids and wellbore pressures, as well as the mechanical design of the gas separator. Successful and unsuccessful examples of gas separator performance in the field are shown along with field fluid data properties. While the study is not complete, this is the first of hopefully several papers that will present the results of this investigation.