Oilfield Rod Pumping Images & Dyno Card Interpretation

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West Texas Fluid Level & Dynamometer Surveys

Free Rod Pumping Cheat Sheet

50-hr e-Course: Dyno-Might!

Oilfield Pictures

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I don't mind if you use the images/pictures below for anything as long as you give credit to Downhole Diagnostic.

Fluid Level Shots & Dynamometer Cards

Perfect 100% Fillage Dynamometer Cards: perfect 100% pump fillage with anchored tubing (rectangular pump card).	Unanchored Tubing Dynamometer Cards: 100% liquid fillage with unanchored tubing. Pump card slants up-right at the Rod Spring Constant.	Fluid Pound Cards Dynamometer Cards: well is fully pumped off to the SN and pounding fluid 45% fillage.
Gas Interference Dynamometer Cards: this well has a long-stroke pumping unit with bad gas interference with the stereotypical gas compression down-stroke.	Gas Interference w/ Gas Expansion Dynamometer Cards: gas interference/compression seen on the down-stroke and lots of gas expansion seen at the start of the up-stroke (which usually indicates a poor compression ratio in the pump; check the pump spacing).	Pump Tag - Overtravel Dynamometer Cards: pump has a solid down-stroke tag and the Pump Card shows lots of over-travel (downhole stroke length is much longer than the surface stroke length at the pumping unit).
Tagging - Tag vs No Tag Dynamometer Cards: the blue cards show the well tagging hard (lots of noise generated in the cards from the tag). I raised the rods to remove the tag and then cards smoothed out (black cards).	Pump Tag - 10K Dynamometer Cards: Pump had a very solid tag: 10,000-lbs of compression! This is how you smash the top clutch of the pump (shown in image).	Pump Tag - Slow Stack Out Dynamometer Cards: pump has a solid tag but this unit is running at a slow SPM with a short stroke length and so the tag did not seem to hard at surface, but it is damaging and unnecessary. The rods stack out on the pump 8" before the bottom of the down-stroke. Considering how short the SL is, this 8" tag is consuming about a 1/3rd of the downhole stroke length!! Raising the rods will increase production by increasing the stroke at the pump.
Upstroke Pump Tag Dynamometer Cards: the plunger is pulling into the top of the pump (trying to unseat it) at the top of the up-stroke. You know the pump is spaced far off bottom when you see this: need to drop the rods.	Pump Tag - Based on Fillage Dynamometer Cards: the pump is spaced very close to bottom and it does not tag when it has 100% fillage but it does tag when the fillage drops (due to the changing dynamics of the stress waves in the rod string); well has Fiberglass rods.	Worn Pump Dynamometer Cards: pump is worn but still has some life left.
Worn Pump - Worn Out Dynamometer Cards: the downhole rod pump is completely worn out and is close to picking up the full fluid load in the middle of the stroke but it never does. The well was not producing anything in this condition: need to change the pump.	Hole in Pump Barrel Dynamometer Cards: the pump has a hole in the bottom third of the pump barrel and once the bottom of the plunger moves past the hole the pressure across the plunger is equalized and the fluid load on the plunger drops to zero. The image shows the pump barrel in the tubing and shows how this pressure equalization works.	Delayed Traveling Valve Closure Dynamometer Cards: the cards show normal 100% fillage cards versus two strokes with the pick-up in the fluid load is delayed. The Delayed Traveling Valve Closure is due to either trash getting between the ball and seat of the Traveling Valve or some damage damage on the surface of the Traveling Valve. (it can also be due to Bottom Discharge Valves not immediately seating if your pump has those installed).
Plunger Stuck in Pump Barrel Dynamometer Cards: pump plunger is stuck in the barrel and the whole up-stroke is nothing but rod tension.	Rods Sticking in Paraffin Dynamometer Cards: the rods are sticking/balled up in paraffin and the plunger is still moving some but most of the stroke is lost due to rod stretch from the paraffin binding to the rods. The downhole pump is not computed correctly as the Wave Equation things the tension from the paraffin is actually some force acting downhole at the pump (...it does not know it is acting higher up the hole due to the paraffin friction).	Solids Grinding Between Plunger & Barrel Dynamometer Cards: Solids getting caught between the plunger and barrel and partially sticking the plunger for a second (tension is pulled which frees the plunger).
Friction Card Dynamometer Cards: This is an example of some higher dog-leg (severe deviation in the wellbore) which is causing a lot of rod-on-tubing friction at that point. The pump is set at 10,000' on this well and the dog-leg is around 3500'. The Wave Equation does not know there is a localized point of excessive friction higher up the hole and thinks everything is happening at the pump, so the pump card is not properly computed (which causes the characteristic down-right slant of the Pump Card).	Leaking Standing Valve Dynamometer Cards: The Standing Valve is partially leaking and the full fluid load is only released off the plunger in the middle of the down-stroke when the plunger is moving the fastest.	Hydraulic Horsepower Card Dynamometer Cards: This is an example of a shallow well with an over-sized tubing pump (2.75" in a 2-7/8" tubing). The pump is bottled-up and you see a hump at the start of the up-stroke due to the increased acceleration/friction forces from pushing so much fluid through the restricted ID of the tubing.
Stuffing Box Friction Dynamometer Cards: This is an example of excessive stuffing box friction distorting the card. The stuffing box friction is seen as the pumping unit changes directions and is highlighted by the brackets.	Slippage vs Gas Locked Dynamometer Cards: Example cards from the same well when it had 100% liquid fillage (with some slippage) versus when the pump gas locked. Look at the difference in area between the cards (which represent the amount of work being performed).	Combo - Rod Stretch + Tag Dynamometer Cards: The well shows lots of rod stretch (due to a high fluid load from the 2" pump and a lot of stretchy fibgerglass rods) and it has a solid pump tag. Think you could feel the tag at surface??? The tag is arriving to surface 35" into the up-stroke, so it is not the easiest tag for the pumper to identify if they don't have some dynamometer cards to look at.
Changing SPM Dynamometer Cards: This well had a VSD (Variable Speed Drive) and the unit is increasing SPM from 4.5 to 8.2 during the cards shown. Notice how the downhole stroke length increases as the pump gets some over-travel due to the elasticity of the fiberglass rods being jerked around.	Can Opener Card Dynamometer Cards: This is what is termed as a "Can-Opener" card and it is a combination of incomplete pump fillage (either due to gas interference or fluid pound) and wear/slippage.	Gas Pound - Fillage Slowly Dropping Dynamometer Cards: The pump fillage is slowly working down each stroke in this data set. The cards tend to indicate fluid pound based on there shape but the Fluid Level Shot indicates there is 300' of Gas Free Liquid Above the Pump (GFLAP), so this is what I term "Gas Pound".
Traveling Valve Ball Damaged Dynamometer Cards: The cards on this well change from good 100% fillage cards to cards that show heavy wear. How can a pump change back and forth from being worn to not being worn? Answer: pitting or misshaped Traveling Valve ball. Depending how the ball lands from stroke-to-stroke affects how effectively the plunger/valve create a pressure seal on the up-stroke.	Tension at Polished Rod Box Dynamometer Cards: You might jump to the conclusion these cards show an up-stroke tag at the pump but notice how the tension at the pump is slanted up-right. In this well, the Polished Rod was not spaced properly and the coupling/box on the bottom of the PR was being pulled up into the stuffing box creating the tension. The software doesn't know that and assumes the tension is occurring at the pump.	1 Fluid Level Shot & Tubing Collars Fluid Level Shot & Tubing Collars (from wireless Echometer equipment with TAM software).
2 High Fluid Level w/ Repeat Reflections High fluid level with repeat reflections (amplitude of reflections reduces as energy is lost): pressure wave is bouncing between the top of the fluid level and the wellhead.	3 Fluid Level Below Perfs Fluid level shot where the well is pumped off (fluid level at the Seating Nipple) and the microphone picks up kicks from the TAC and perfs. Not easy to see the top of the fluid level due to the perfs 'swallowing' so much of pressure wave.	4 FL Below TAC The TAC (Tubing Anchor Catcher) can be clearly seen in this shot above the top of the fluid level.
5 Liner Top & Repeat Three kicks show up and the top of the production liner if very clearly shown. The reflection off the liner top is exactly 2x the distance to the top of the liner.	6 Suspected Csg Leak I found a large up-kick high up the hole on this well (where there was not supposed to be any perfs or other annular discrepancies), and since the well was still producing to surface it can't be a tubing leak, so it looks like this well has a casing leak (maybe a dry casing leak, or a previously leak that was squeezed off with cement).

Pumping Unit Pictures

Mark II Mark II pumping unit running in North Dakota, 2020. Click the link below to see the full video:	Conventional PPU To see a video of conventional PPU click the link below:	Reverse Mark Reverse Mark PPU: it looks like a conventional PPU but notice how the Equalizer Bearing is pushed forward ahead of the Crank Shaft (red dash): this makes the up-stroke speed a little slower than the down-stroke speed (like a Mark II) and reduces the load on the gearbox. You can see the difference in speed in the video linked below.	Beam Balance Cute little Beam-Balance pump jack. It is a shallow well (2000') and the few weights at the end of the walking-beam are enough to offset the light load of the 3/4" rods (and half of the fluid load on the plunger). Beam-balance units can only be applied for shallower wells.
Little Extra C-Bal This sweetheart is pumping above her weight class! The counter-weights are at the end of the crank but aren't enough to balance the gearbox so the operator welded on weights to her backside to give a little additional counterweight. The PPU was probably undersized for the depth of the well...but instead of buying a new PPU sometimes you have to pinch pennies and just make it work.	Air Balance PPU Air Balanced Pump Jack. Notice there are no counter-weights as the Air Tank under the walking beam compresses air on the down-stroke which provides the force to help counter-balance the rod weight. Click link below to see video.	Tower PPUs Real Power Play here to put 4 long-stroke pumping units on a single location. Ran across this in the Bakken area of North Dakota. Click link below to see the video.	Rotaflex Front view of a Long-Stroke PPU's (AKA Tower, Elevator units). These are also commonly known as a Rotaflex units but Weatherford manufactures the Rotaflex; this unit is actually made by Liberty Lift.
Groove PPU This is a specialty PPU that was manufactured in West Texas back in the 70's and is since long gone: only ran into one of these units in my career and I was speechless when I pulled on location and saw this guy running. It is a Groove unit (made by Jerry Watson). Click link below to see video.	Low Profile PPU Low profile pump jacks are designed to be low to the ground so that an irrigation pivot can safely pass overhead. Video link below.	Strap Jack PPU Strap Jack Pumping Unit: this unit is the same as a Low Profile unit (leaves vertical clearance above so an irrigation pivot can pass overhead) but has a slightly different design. Video linked below.	Linear Hydraulic PPU - Zedi Two linear hydraulic pumping units with different geometries (manufactured by Zedi). Left one is a longer-stroke unit and the one on the right has a shorter stroke. See video in link below.
Linear Hydraulic - SSI Linear Hydraulic PPU (by SSI; Canadian company); 322" Max SL. See video of unit in link below:	Bent Beam PPU This is a newer style geometry unit known as a Bent Beam: as you can see it is a mix between a Beam Balance and a Conventional Crank Balance PPU. This is a unit manufactured in China by HG and imported (as far as I understand) by Grimes Sales. The first one I ran into was in the Bakken in North Dakota.	Mark II & Me Searching for that pot of gold...	PPU & TB Can you tell which style of PPU this is? It looks like just a conventional unit but notice how the equalizer bearing is not located vertically above the gearbox shaft (it sticks out in front of it)? It is a Reverse Mark PPU in a beautiful west Texas sunset.
West Texas Sun Set Just another day in paradise...	Old PPU Just an old beautiful pumping unit stripping the oil out of a stripper well...	Gearbox The internals of a pumping unit gearbox. Picture courtesy of Weatherford.	Drive Belts Drive belts connect the motor sheave to the gearbox sheave.
Jackshaft Jackshaft (or Slow-Jack): this uses two sets of sheaves and allows the well to be slowed down to almost any SPM desired. I have seen units running at 2.5 SPM with 168" SL using a Jack-Shaft. I think these are too often under-utilized and they should be used more frequently on wells that have depleted production (low run time) and have a big PPU installed with a large stroke length. Stroke her easy: Long & Slow! Link to below is below:	4 Ladies Four beautiful ladies. Picture from Watford,ND.	Tiny PPU The cutest pump jack I have ever seen. You could probably pull the rods out by hand for this well...	Conv vs Mark II Conventional Unit vs Mark II: AKA, Nodding Donkey vs Grasshopper!!
3 Amigos Three Lufkin pumping units (Reverse Mark 912-427-192) pumping units on a pad in the Eagle Ford Shale by Giddings, TX.	Pecos, TX, Pumping Units Just weighing a few wells around Pecos, TX.	Night Time PPU My reward for working late night into sunset	Adjusting Counter-Weight Crane adjusting the counter-weights to balance the load on the gear box.
Long-Stroke Liberty PPU Failure Long-Stroke Liberty PPU Failure. The Polished Rod (PR) was too short and the PR Box got stuck in the stuffing box on the up-stroke, then bent all out of shape on the down-stroke.	Cratered Pumping Unit 1 Pumping unit cratered: the walking beam twisted off (and lucky the horse head did not land on the wellhead!)	Cratered Pumping Unit 2 PPU Failure: wrist-pin twisted off causing the walking beam to twist and the head to be thrown off. Wolfberry well south of Midland.	Big Spring Pumping Unit Beautiful conventional PPU (C228D-246-86) just north of Big Spring, Texas.
Stacking Out 912 Pumping Unit Another beautiful day in paradise (out east of Austin, Texas). If you look closely you can see the rods are stacked out on the wellhead (there is separation between the PR-Clamp and the Bridle) as I am in the process of dropping the rods (due to gas interference).

Wellhead Pictures

Wellhead w/ Pressurized Chemical Nice wellhead on a beautiful day in the Eagle Ford Shale east of Austin. The well uses a form of pressurized chemical (in green tank) that would be released 10-times a day down the casing (followed by tubing flush fluid which was opened by means of an automated valve) to provide many daily "mini-batch" chemical treatments.	Wellhead w/ Chemical Pot Interesting well head configuration with a large chemical pot (chemical can be poured in the pot then flushed downhole by using the tubing fluid). Andrews, Texas.	Casing Head Casing head as it looks after the drilling rig has moved out and before the well has been completed.	Re-Entry Well This was a plugged well that is going to be re-entered. Operator dug down to the cut casing and installed a piece of casing and wellhead to bring the well back up to surface but they have not yet covered the well back up.
Slip-Stream Chemical Diagram The chemical "slip-stream" is a 3/8" aluminum pipe that carries flush fluid from the tubing to the casing. Its VITALLY important the slip-stream doesn't plug up as the flush fluid carries the chemical downhole. Without flush fluid, the chemical will drool down the casing walls and likely "gunk out" before reaching the pump causing your chemical treatment to be highly inefficient. I usually find, on average, about 60-70% of the slip-streams on wells I check are plugged up or closed off!	Robot Well Robotic Well - this well has more gadgets and gizmos than I even understand. I've never seen such a complicated set-up. Eagle Ford, 2015.	Robot Well II Fancy wellhead w/ several sensors tied into the Lufkin Well Manager (POC): has tubing and casing pressure kill-switches and an anti-pollution stuffing box dump pot.	Wellhead w/ Circulation Loop Well head in Midland, TX. Has a circulation loop (left side) and the production loop (right side).
Wellhead & Casing Head in Cellar Wellhead with the cellar not yet filled in. Mentone, TX.	Wellhead Wellhead w/ a Polished Rod Lubricator on top the Stuffing Box. Big Spring, TX.	Messy Wellhead Messy wellhead after a recent stuffing box leak. You can see the slip-stream (lets fluid "slip" from the tubing to the casing to help carry the continuous chemical injected downhole to the pump). Andrews, TX.	Wellhead Basic Wellhead. Midland, Texas.
New Wellhead Pretty wellhead configuration (...obviously on a brand new well) which supervised the construction of myself by Iraan, Texas.	Sassy Gassy Well Found the well making a stuffing box leak due to bad gas interference so I backed my truck up to the well in order to drop the rods to help the pump better "pass the gas". Pecos, Texas.	PR Lubricator Polished Rod Lubricator with oil wicks to lubricate the polished rod.	Stuffing Box & Rod BOP Stuffing Box w/ a Rod BOP below it and a Greese Time-Release fitting screwed into the stuffing box where the grease nipple usually is. Mentone, Texas.
Stuffing Box with Leak Pot	Tubing Back-Pressure Valve Baird Back-Pressure Valve - used to hold tubing pressure to keep the top of the tubing fluids from flowing off. Lamesa, Texas	Scaled-Up Back-Pressure Valve Here are the guts of a Baird Back-Pressure Valve that was scaled up, causing a flow restriction and excessive tubing pressure to be held. Lamesa, Texas.

Wireless Echometer Fluid Level Gun & Dynamometer Pictures

Echometer Horseshoe Dynamometer The Echometer Horseshoe Dynamometer sitting on top of a load cell for POC. This was on a new well and the POC was not yet in use (no load cell cable installed).	Two Dyno's, Load Cell & Rod Rotator Echometer horseshoe loadcell, rod rotator, POC loadcell and Echometer PRT (screw-on) dynamometer.	Echometer Dynamometers The 2 most common forms of the Echometer Dynamometers. The Horseshoe Dyno (underneath the PR-Clamps) is a true load cell that physically weighs the rod string while the more popular quick-install PRT (Polished Rod Transducer; screwed onto the PR) measures the relative changes in load between the up-stroke and down-stroke to determine the fluid load.	Echometer PRT Dyno Echometer PRT Dynamometer sitting on the base of the pumping unit.
Horseshoe Dyno Echometer's wireless Horseshoe Dynamometer is primarily used for troubleshooting wells that are not producing, for getting exact rod loading measurements, and for performing counter-balance tests.	Echometer Fluid Level Gun The FL Gun shoots a pressure pulse down the well (using pressurized CO2 or N2) to determine the depth to the fluid and determine how much fluid is above the pump intake.	H-15 FL Shot Down Open Top Casing This old inactive had the casing head removed and now there is nothing but the top joint of casing open to atmosphere. I wedged a piece of rubber around the gun to keep it from falling and to help concentrate the acoustic reflection back to the gun's microphone. The clarify in the FL shots was surprisingly good. Iraan, TX.	Stack Out Rods 1 Rods are stacked out on the wellhead in order to install the Horseshoe Dyno beneath the Polished Rod Clamps. I used my suitcase for this stack-out.
Stack Out Rods 2 Another well with the rods stacked out on the wellhead. See the next picture for a closer view. The stackout process is a liability risk and takes a good amount of time and that is why the screw-on PRT is usually preferable (and faster/safer).	Stack Out Rods 3 Rods again stacked out. A Stack-Out Stand supports the weight and protects the packing in the stuffing box. Above the stand is the Polished Rod Liner, the Stack Out Clamp, followed by the Bridle, my Horseshoe Dyno, then the two Polished Rod Clamps.	Polshed Rod Bending Notice how this Polished Rod bends on the horse-head at the top of the stroke (it is actually due to the bridle wire being too short and the PR-Clamp hitting the head). PR Bending can cause the Dyno cards to slant (especially on the PRT Dyno) as this additional side loading is interpreted by the dynamometers to be "additional" loading from downhole.	Recording Dyno Cards Echometer dynamometer installed and recording dynamometer cards.
Diagnosing Wells This well would not pump and I was in the process of diagnosing the problem. A Fluid Level Shot was being taken down the tubing as there was no fluid at surface. It ended up being a Tubing Leak.	Swaged Down from 2" to 1/4" Sometimes you just have to have the right tools to get the job done efficiently. Here I am shooting down a 1/4" ball valve. Ideally, I would have shot down an open 2" connection but the 2" ball valve (copper color) was froze up and would not close, so I had to improvise.	Fluid Level Gun Volume Chamber The standard volume chamber that comes with the Echometer fluid level gun is attached to the gun. The volume chamber in front of it is 3-times the standard size and I use it for shooting deep wells that have difficult to see fluid levels.	Wired Echometer Fluid Level Gun Wired equipment. All the other pictures in this gallery show the wireless equipment.
Wired Dynamometer on Rotaflex Well	Echometer's Gun Shop Echometer's gun shop in Wichita Falls, Texas.

Rod Pumping Failure Pictures

Pump - Clutch Beat Up Top clutch on sucker rod pump pounded due to hard tagging.	Plunger - Sand Cut Top section of the pump plunger is heavily worn/cut due to sand/solids grinding between the plunger and the barrel.	Plunger Stuck - Stack Off Bridle Notice the problem here? The well was pumping fine. I turned it off a couple minutes and then turned it back on and the Polished Rod Clamp started separating from the bridle at the bottom of the stroke each stroke, which indicates the plunger got stuck at the top of the barrel (in sand/scale) during that brief down-time and the rods are just coiling up and stacking out on the down-stroke. It wasn't a good day.	Tubing Leak - Rod Wear Track with Corros Rod wear track due to rod box rubbing in tubing.
Tubing Leak - Paper Thin	Bacteria Pitting on OD of Tubing	Rod Wear - Box Worn to Threads	FG Rod Bird Nest Parted fiberglass rods tend to break out into strands in what looks like a broom or a bird nest.
Pitting on Rods - Bacteria 1.b Under-deposit pitting: the pitting is only revealed after cleaning up the rods with a wire brush (deep pitting hidden beneath all the black spots). Looks like bacterial pitting.	Pitting on Rods (Unusual Shape) Unusual character of pits.	PPU - High Rod Part & Bent PR Rods parted high and there was enough elastic energy stored in the stretched rods to cause the upper rods (above the rod part) to jump causing the bridle wires to slip off the sides of the horse head.	Sucker Rod Box - Extreme Corrosion I pulled this out of a well that had been sitting idle for several years before it was pulled: heavy corrosion all around the rod box due to the corrosive water.
Rod Box - Pitting	Rod Part - Parted Plane with Tear Lip	Rod Part - Focus in on Initiating Pit	Rod Wear - Rod with Stress Cracks
Rod Wear Track Looking down a joint of tubing that failed due to a tubing leak. You can see the smooth/polished track where the rods were rubbing.	Casing Leak - Mud Oozing Out Tbg Well had a casing leak. Pulled tubing out of hole and had thick drilling mud in all of the tubing.	Scale in Flowline Scale almost completely sealing off the internal ID on the flowline on a rod pumped well.	Pitted & Egged Traveling Valve Damaged Traveling Valve Balls will lead to excessive slippage (and will look like a worn pump on the Pump Card from a dynamometer test).

Leaks & Other Problems:

PR Liner Leak Polished Rod leak though a pin hole. Click the link below to see video:	Stuffing Box Leak Typical stuffing box leak: making a mess!! Click link below to go to video:	Massive Stuffing Box Leak Lake of oil around the wellhead due to a massive stuffing box leak.	Cone Packing Cone Packing: this is the rubber element that forms the pressure seal on the Polished Rod and allows the PR to reciprocate up-and-down while maintaining a pressure seal to prevent stuffing box leaks. Produced oil and grease are the primary lubricants that extend packing life and reduce stuffing box friction.
Environmental Stuffing Box Containment Environmental Stuffing Box Containment. A sensor inside is connected to the POC and when the container senses there is fluid inside it shuts the pumping unit down. This is one way to minimize stuffing box leaks from becoming a big mess. The one problem with these is that rain water often gets in and can cause the sensor to think there is a stuffing box leak and prematurely shut the well down (...so some pumpers just rip them off).	Water Maker The classic image of a well that makes a very high water cut. Oil is the primary lubricant for the stuffing box packing, so when a well makes a very high water cut it tends to have more stuffing box leaks and you tend to see wellheads that look like this: covered in salt but not covered in oil.	SBox Grease Stringers Stuffing box coated in grease.	Alignment Terrible alignment of the PPU over the hole. In most normal wells this would cause continuous, repeated stuffing box leaks. This well in particular is a stripper well that makes very little fluid and only had 20# TP. I have never seen such bad alignment and asked the pumper how the stuffing box is able to hold the pressure and he said it only gives him problems during winter when the weather is cold!!
Alignment 2 Pumping unit is too far over the hole and badly out of alignment. This will lead to premature stuffing box leaks and broke polished rods: need to pull the PPU back away from the well!! The operator put a piece of poly-pipe on top of the PR to try and protect it from repeated banging on the horse-head.	PR Pit Massive pit in the Polished Rod! Normally, this would tear up the stuffing box packing and cause repeated leaks. However, this is another stripper well that runs 15% of the day with low TP and the operator is hoping he can hold off and wait till the next failure to replace the PR.	Asphaltenes Well makes heavy asphaltenes and you can some of it oozing out!

Pump Off Controller (POC) & Time Clock Pictures

POC Dyno - Wrong Fillage This pump card plotted on the POC (Lufkin 2.0 controller) is not reading the correct fillage: the POC thinks there is "76% fillage" but the cards show the actual fillage is about 35%. The Fill Base is set too high at 55% (after adjusting it down the POC started reading the correct fillage). This well has a VSD and since the POC was not reading the correct fillage it was running 100% everyday until I corrected it: this is why all wells with POC's need to be verified & calibrated.	Pump Card - Gas Lock The full rectangular card is how the Pump Card looks when 100% liquid fillage. The other cards plotted against it show the pump is fully gas locked (the whole stroke is essentially just Gas Expansion & Gas Compression).	Standard Card - Rod Part This well has a failure. This dynamometer plot on the Lufkin POC shows the saved 'Standard' Pump Card (dashed) plotted against the current pump cards with the failure (the flat lines on bottom). The current pump cards plot well below where they should, which indicates the well has a high Rod Part.	Gassy Run Cycle Pattern The run cycles are very erratic with a very long 1-hour down-time: this is usually a very good indication the well has gas interference.
Lufkin 2.0 Pump Off Controller Front cover of Lufkin 2.0 POC	Lufkin 2.0 POC - Interface Interface for the Lufkin 2.0 Pump Off Controller.	Lufkin (Sam) Pump Off Controller Main status screen display on the Lufkin POC.	Lufkin 1.0 Pump Off Controller Lufkin 1.0 POC. In my opinion the Lufkin POC is the best on the market and the Lufkin 2.0 has some nice new features, but the Lufkin 1.0 controller is still my favorite and easier/faster than the 2.0 to navigate around to diagnose the well.
Rod Stretch Dynamometer cards on the Lufkin POC show the well has extreme rod stretch: need to either downsize the pump or reduce the length of the Fiberglass Rod taper (or both).	Plugged Intake + Friction/Drag? This is another example of a well showing extreme Rod Stretch. This well has a plugged pump intake (fluid level was right below surface on the backside but this fluid column is not communicating with the pump) but this well also appears to have some sort of additional downhole friction somewhere that is further reducing the downhole stroke length (like paraffin) as a rod design simulation shows the plunger should have a much longer downhole stroke than it does (even when pumped off).	Weatherford POC & VSD Weatherford POC/VSD combo.	Weatherford POC 2.0 Weatherford's 2.0 POC: cards show tension being pulled at the top of the stroke. Looks like the pump is tagging up but actually the Polished Rod was too short and not spaced properly and the bottom box on the PR was pulling into the stuffing box at the top of the stroke.
Weatherford Well Pilot POC Here is the main status screen for the Weatherford 1.0 Pump Off Controller.	Weatherford POC 1.0 Dynamometer cards on the Weatherford 1.0 Pump Off Controller.	Spirit Genesis POC & VSD	Spirit Genesis POC Interface The main status screen for the Spirit Genesis controller.
Djax Penny Pincher POC Djax POC mounted to the front panel box. This POC senses "Pump Off" by measuring the time it takes for each pump stroke to occur. As the downhole pump fillage drops the well's pumping speed increases ever so slightly, and once that increased speed crosses the set threshold the POC turns the well off.	Djax Penny Pincher POC - Explained Inside the Djax POC panel box. This well has ran the last 2-hours and 54-minutes straight. The Full Barrel Time (FBT) is 8.734 seconds/stroke and once the pumping speed increases by 0.020 (= 20 Delta T), meaning it takes 8.714-sec/stroke, the POC will turn the unit off. The current pumping speed 8.732-sec/stk (shown on top). The "life-bar" represents how far the POC is from reaching the 20 DT threshold.	Djax Penny Pincher POC Sensor The Djax POC measures stroke speed with this crank sensor wand that picks up a magnet attached to the back of the crank.	POC Controlling Baseed on Surface Card This is an older Weatherford controller that only displays a Surface Card (the load on the Polished Rod). This well pumps off and the card shown is when the pump has 100% liquid fillage. To minimize fluid-pound I changed the location of the set point from the yellow dot to the red dot: when the Surface Card plots over/above the set point the POC shuts the well down. It is usually best to calibrate these POC's with an Echometer dynamometer that shows the Pump Card.
Pump Tag Violating Malfunction Set Point This is a plot of the Surface Card and this well has a hell of a tag and the POC shut the well down due to violating the Malfunction Set Point (dot). The Malfunction Set Point is violated when the load on the up-stroke plots below where the Malfunction Set Point dot is.	Lufkin POC - Gas Locked Well Surface and Downhole Pump cards. The POC is not properly programmed (as the Fillage Set Point is at 25%!) and the shape of the pump card indicates significant gas interference (and that the pump was essentially gas locked).	Lufkin POC - Worn Pump This pump card indicates a heavily worn pump as the full fluid load is only picked up in the middle of the up-stroke (when the plunger is moving the fastest).	Lufkin POC - Variable Slippage Pump This is a VSP Pump that is designed to let the fluid slip off the plunger at the upper part of the stroke (in order to compress the gas in the pump for the next down-stroke). However, the pump is also worn as indicated by too much VSP slippage at the top and that it is slow to pick up the full fluid load at the start of the up-stroke (full fluid load not picked up until 25").
Lufkin POC - Erratic Valve Action This is one of the craziest set of cards I have ever captured. Some pump wear is evident on the good strokes, then on other strokes the full fluid load is not even picked up (making the effective displacement of those strokes 0%). The well has yet to be pulled, but I'm confident it Traveling Valve ball is either egged in shape or pitted (see the next picture) causing the Traveling Valve to sometimes seal and other times to not seal just depending how the ball landed on the seat that stroke.	Egged & Pitted Traveling Valve Balls Mis-shapen traveling valve balls like this would explain the unusual cards seen in the prior image.	Lufkin POC - Malfunction Set Point The Malfunction Set Point (a violation parameter) was violated too many strokes causing the POC to shut the unit down. When the up-stroke load on the surface card drops below the Malfunction Set Point (the black dot) the current stroke was in violation and this is most commonly due to a rod part, Delayed Traveling Valve Closure, or the Traveling Valve never closing (due to solids getting between the ball and seat), which was the cause in this case.	Lufkin POC - Up-Stroke Tag This well has both gas interference and an up-stroke tag. The gas interference was due to fact the pump plunger was spaced way off bottom causing the pump to have a very poor Compression Ratio.
POC Load Cell & Leveling Washers The bridle on this well was not exactly level. As as result you can see two leveling washers under the load cell are not fully in alignment (which is good; that is what they should do).	Friction Damping Factors Too High The damping factors (which are assumed and remove downhole friction on the rod string so it doesn't show up in the Pump Card) are set too high and as a result the Pump Card is distorted and the POC is miscalculating the fillage and it was running the well 100% of the day. I adjusted the damping factors down and the cards corrected and the POC was able to correctly interpret the fillage and shut the well down at pump off! Dyno-Might!!	POC Load Cell Leveling Washers The upper washer sits in a bowl-like groove on the lower washer allowing the upper washer (and POC load cell) to stay level and avoid side-loading which can distort the Dynamometer Cards.	Lufkin POC - Gas Interference & Tag This well had terrible gas interference, so the rods were dropped to find bottom and the pump has a light tag (seen in the lower left corner of the card) and a gas compression down-curve despite the well having 1800' of Gas Free Liquid Above the Pump (GFLAP).
Weatherford POC - Can-Opener Card I This is the "Can-Opener" card: it is composite mixture of Incomplete Pump Fillage (either due to Gas Interference or Fluid Pound) and Slippage due to pump wear. It's an unusual card you don't often see. In this case, the well ended up being pumped off (it is a 4500' vertical well, pumping fast w/ FG rods). See the next image.	Weatherford POC - Can-Opener Card II This is the same well that had the Can-Opener card AFTER it had been turned off for several minutes: now you just see upper barrel slippage due to a worn upper barrel. With the well having been turned off for several minutes, the pump is now full of liquid and you don't see the incomplete fillage showing up (like you did in the previous card).	Oil Field Timer - 15-min Percentage This is a common time clock out here in the Permian Basin. You set the timer by moving the knob and the black arrow. The red dial moves counter-clockwise around every 15-minutes: when it hits the zero-mark, the unit turns off, and the unit turns back on when the red arrow passes the black arrow. It is known as a 15-minute Percentage Timer.	Oil Field Timer - 15-min Pin Timer This old fashioned timer has 96-pins on it and each pin represents 15-minutes. The dial rotates and a sensor on bottom (right above the "Tork" label) is pushed down by the pins that are flipped out causing the well to run. So if the timer had a pattern of 4-pins out, 4-pins in, the well would run on a 1-hour ON, 1-hour OFF pattern.
Adjustable Timer This is one of the best timers I have seen as it gives you complete flexibility to set the ON & OFF time. The screws on the right side allow you to adjust the time increments from minutes to hours, so if you want you could set the well to run 1.5-hrs ON, 7-min OFF. Complete flexibility as opposed to having a 15-min percentage timer (where the unit turns on an off all day; not good for wells needing little run time) and it even gives more flexibility than a 15-min pin timer.

Rod Pumping Optimization: a few extracted slides from a training course...

Rod Pumping Optimization Here are a few extracted slides from a Rod Pumping Optimization training course I performed (most of the slides pertain to Dynamometer Card Interpretation). I have many more slides on every tropic related to Sucker Rod Pumping and would be happy to help train your Engineers, field Foreman, Pumpers and Well Techs on whatever topics you are interested in.	Rod Pumping System Concepts	Downhole Rod Pump	Dynamometer Card Interpretation
Surface Dyno Card	Wave Equation to Calculate Pump Card	Pump Dynamometer Card	Traveling & Standing Valve Action
Pump Card Interpretation	Keys to Interpreting Pump Card	Liquid vs Effective Pump Fillage	Ideal Dynamometer Card: 100% Fillage
Fluid Pound & Gas Interference	Pump Wear & Delayed TV Closure	Solids Sticking in Rod Pump	Friction Dyno Cards: Rod-on-Tubing
Gas Lock & Unique Card	Consecutive Stks: What's Happening?	"Can-Opener" Cards	Fluid Pound Dynamometer Cards
Gas Interference Dyno Cards	Gas Lock Dynamometer Cards	Tag on Pump: FG vs Steel Rods	Plunger Spacing: Function of Fillage
Up-Stroke Tag	Destructive Pumping	Incomplete Pump Fillage Spectrum	I Have Much More to Share
Shawn Dawsey @ Downhole Diagnostic

Other Forms of Artificial Lift

ESP with Cooling Fan Shooting a fluid level on a gas lift well. The bottomhole tempature is hot and the well makes so much fluid that the produced fluid has to be cooled down (radiator with cooling fan) before it is sent to the tank battery. North Dakota.	Gas Lift Wellhead Conventional gas lift wellhead: gas is being injected down the backside and aerating the tubing to help lift the fluids to surface. Mertzon, TX.	Gas Lift - Frozen Injection Line Gas lift injection line is frozen up on outside (but still injecting). Mertzon, TX.	Gas Lift Compressor Gas lift compressor for a single location.
Slickline Truck on Gas Lift Well Slickline truck is replacing a bad gas lift valve on a well.	Plunger Lift Well Plunger lift wellhead. Belfield, ND.	Plunger Lift - Pad Plungers Typical pad plungers.	Plunger Lift Controller PCS Ferguson plunger lift controller.
PCP - Progressive Cavity Pump Progessive Cavity Pump on wellhead. This well used to be produced by a pumping unit but it couldn't pump the well down, so they changed over to PCP.	PCP - Progressive Cavity Pump 2 Progressive cavity pump on oil well. Odessa, TX.	PCP Rotor Rotor (which is attached to the bottom of the rod string on a PCP well) laying on the ground.	ESP ESP wellhead. The way to distinguish it is producing by an ESP is only by the fact the ESP cable is running through the wellhead to the downhole motor.
ESP Bands on Cable ESP cable is banded to the tubing all the way from surface to the downhole motor. Sometimes these bands can create enough noise in the Fluid Level Shot to make getting a good Collar Count (which the Echometer software uses to calculated the the Acoustic Velocity) difficult, so if you shoot an ESP well make sure the calculated Acoustic Velocity is reasonable.	Jet Lift Wellhead Jet lift wellhead installation. North Dakota.	Jet Lilft Wellhead 2 Another Jet lift wellhead installation.

Oilfield Scenery:

Midland - Time Served If you moved out here for work, you know that's funny!	Sunset PPU Montana Sunset	West Texas Sunset There is nothing like a west Texas sunset (...no trees to block your view!)	Flare Tank Yes, this is a flare tank. Doesn't seem exactly safe but I guess at least it will catch any liquids that accidentally push over. Found this beauty in Montana.
Sand Hills I was told to shoot a fluid level (H-15 Test for the RRC) on this abandoned well located in the sand hills of Andrews, TX, and this is what I found!	Wind Sock Being a one-man company, I kind of feel like this wind sock some days when I am slammed with work!	Tank Battery Sunset Picture taken by Wink, Texas.	Starlight PPU Mark II Pump Jack at nightfall in Montana.
Sunset PPU West Texas sunset as storm approaches. Mentone, TX.	Shadows Shadows on the walls.	Oil Pipeline Construction	Red Sunset Pecos, Texas.
North Dakota Location	Midland Sunset Picture taken from Midland College.	Cowboy Country	Midland Weather Just when you think your trees are bound to get some rain from the massive storm...
Sunset on Pecos Pulling Unit	Flying into Midland	God's Land Snapped this pic driving back to Midland. Good fortunes to come.	Rod Pump Traveling & Standing Valves
Well Kicking Up the Tubing We were pulling rods when the well kicked fluid up the tubing. The pulling unit hand is trying to stab a valve onto the tubing so we can close the well in!	Constructing a Tank Battery The Heater Treater (3-phase separator) is on the left and 2-oil tanks and 1-water tank are on the right. Directly in front is the Header where multiple wells will have their flowline tie into the battery.	From Parched Land We don't get much rain out here but we are blessed with oil.	Rods Hung in Derrick Steel rods hanging in the derrick in triples. Some of the rods have 2 Molded Rod Guides per rod and some are bare steel. Eagle Ford well.
Rods in Derrick: Dripping Texas Tea	My Oilfield NightLight South Texas.	Day Before the Frac Wireline is rigged up to the well through the lubricator (being held by the crane) and shooting the bottom set of perforations. The frac crew moves in tonight. Pumping starts at crack-of-dawn tomorrow.	Sunset in Pecos, TX

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