Kindersley鈥� When an oil well is near the end of its productive life, but not quite there yet, often several more years can be wrung out of it before abandonment. That鈥檚 where a process known as swabbing comes into play. For Jim Olson, he鈥檚 been doing it since September 1989.
Jim Olson owns and operates Red Sky Resources Ltd. with his brother Gregg 鈥淏utch鈥� Olson, along with their respective wives Brenda and Dawn. Jim runs the office and goes out in the field from time to time, while Gregg handles a lot of the repair.聽
鈥淭hat鈥檚 basically what started the industry we鈥檙e in, swabbing, was a downturn like this one,鈥� Jim Olson said. 鈥淭hey were stripping off these real marginal wells.
鈥淎 lot of companies were going broke. They start stripping off wells, selling equipment. They were giving wells away, selling them for a buck. You didn鈥檛 have to worry about the abandonment,鈥� he explained. It wasn鈥檛 viable to keep paying for operators to maintain those wells.
By swabbing them once or twice a week, those wells kept going. 鈥淪ome of them, you鈥檒l get anywhere from 0.3 of a cubic metre to 2.5 cubic metres off them, depending on the well,鈥� Olson said.
鈥淭he production swabbing we do is pretty unique to this area,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 just swab oil wells. We swab water off gas wells.鈥�
The process of swabbing is not too far off from the concept of lowering a bucket by rope into a water well then pulling it up.
鈥淭he tool we run down the hole has swab cups on it 鈥� rubber rings,鈥� he said.
There are holes through the tool at the top and middle. The cups slide up, allowing the tool to drop through the fluid. Once you are at the bottom of the well or as deep as you want to go, engaging the drawworks tightens the cable. The cups seat on the bottom and pull up the fluid with it 鈥� just like a bucket full of water.
A three-inch hose comes off the lubricator off the top. All the fluid goes into the tank on the truck. 鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty much a portable pumpjack on a truck, basically.鈥�
鈥淚n oil wells, it鈥檚 mostly oil,鈥� he said.
The process is pretty quick, as Olson noted they can do one-to-three wells in an hour, depending on the wells.
鈥淵ou back into the well, you stand your pole. You鈥檝e got a four-inch valve on the well. You spin a half-thread in for a hammer union. Our lubricator goes on. You hammer that in, tight. You open the valve, lift your brake and run 鈥檈r down.
鈥淭he wells are basically dead. There鈥檚 little to no gas. We have a depthometer that tells you how deep you are. Most of the stuff we鈥檙e swabbing is about 680 to 720 metres down the well. They鈥檙e mostly old verticals.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e done, you shut the valve on the well, unhook the lubricator and go to the next well. Most of our tanks are six cubic metres of fluid. You go until you鈥檙e full. You go to the battery or field tank to unload.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 just a matter of keeping producing them when there鈥檚 nothing to pump anymore. Most of these are a barrel-a-day wells. They鈥檝e reached the end of their life and they鈥檙e kind of oozing in there. That鈥檚 why they鈥檙e not viable for the power for the pumpjack or the operator to check on it.鈥�
The work is usually done on a contract basis, by the hour or by the swab.
Their rigs are very similar to flushby units, but smaller. Most of Red Sky鈥檚 units are single axel trucks with a small drawworks, pull mast and tank.
Sometimes if a well doesn鈥檛 flow after a frac, they鈥檒l be called in to swab the water out of the well to get it going. 鈥淭hey鈥檒l go from dead to live really quick,鈥� Olson said.
Due to the low price of gas, swabbing gas wells has dropped off substantially. 鈥淔or gas wells, the last two years have been nonexistent. (Given) the price of gas, if the well loads up, they shut it in,鈥� he said.
Gas wells need swabbing when the water in the well loads up to a point where the gas won鈥檛 flow anymore.
While some people might think swabbing is on its way out, Olson countered, 鈥淚鈥檝e been hearing that since I started nearly 30 years ago.鈥�
Liability ratios for keeping old wells active versus abandoning and cleaning them up is a growing issue for the industry. Olson said, 鈥淢y take on that is they all have to be abandoned at some point. But for these companies, whether they keep swabbing them or abandoning them 鈥� if they鈥檙e still profitable as you鈥檙e swabbing them, why would you abandon them?鈥�
鈥淭hat鈥檚 basically what started our industry. As an alternative to abandoning a well, let鈥檚 keep making money. The RMs are collecting taxes off it. The farmers are collecting lease payments. We鈥檙e employing people to run equipment to do it. It keeps money in the area.
鈥淏ut there is a point where some stuff just isn鈥檛 profitable, where you have to abandon that stuff and plug it.鈥�
The Kindersley area has hundreds of old vertical wells that are swabbed. The bulk of their work is between Kindersley and Kerrobert, but they also work in the Plato area.
Red Sky runs seven swabbing rigs and has nine employees. Each rig usually has just one worker, unless they are working on a gas well, then they would have two.
The business stays fairly steady all the time, whether the price of oil is high or low. 鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty consistent. Compared to a lot of other sectors in the oilfield, we鈥檝e been fortunate,鈥� Olson said.
While things have slowed down and they鈥檝e had to cut rates, they鈥檝e actually just hired another worker, allowing them to reactivate a unit that had been idled for a year.聽
