Reducing customers’ expenses by improving their operating efficiencies goes a long way toward attracting loyal customers. Davey Graham, the owner of Gonzo LLC in De Beque, Colo., knows this from experience, thanks to the dozen submersible S6CSL pumps his company owns.
These workhorses, made by Hydra-Tech Pumps and driven by Hydra-Tech power units, were instrumental in helping Graham establish his business in 2008. Gonzo provides an array of water-management services to oil- and gas-drilling companies in Colorado.
“We tried regular vacuum-assisted pumps, but their performance was inconsistent,” Graham says. “For continuous operation, we found that submersible pumps are the only way to go.”
The Hydra-Tech pumps provide several benefits to Gonzo customers. First of all, they save money by helping operators recycle drilling mud. Set in the cellar ring, or cellar box, the pumps circulate fluid and cuttings/shavings from the well bore to filtering screens that separate solids from the mud, which can then be reused. Moreover, recycling mud minimizes the use of fresh water required to mix new batches of mud, Graham says.
“That way, they don’t have to keep accessing local water resources … and using freshwater on a continual basis,” he points out. “It’s one way to minimize the environmental impact.”
The pumps also help reduce costs when drilling companies bore multiple holes in well pads, he notes.
“The Hydra-Tech pumping system allows for much cheaper operation when they batch their surface holes,” he explains. “The savings come from eliminating the need for a flow line, or nippling up, as they call it. That, in turn, makes for a quicker cementing and casing process.”
This technique also benefits the drilling companies because it further minimizes the chances of contaminating the mud system with cement. If cement gets into the mud, it ruins it, he says.
“Then it costs a considerable amount of money to clean out the mud tanks and rebuild your mud,” he says.
The pumps, which weigh 495 pounds and can generate flow of 1,250 gpm at 135 feet of head, cost about $12,000 apiece. The power units go for roughly $60,000. They only require one person for operation, which is controlled by a throttle on the power unit. Other features include variable-speed, hydraulic-drive operation; a 6-inch discharge port; hydraulic input flow of 28 gpm; and hydraulic operating pressure of 2,800 psi.
Graham lauds the pump’s design, which features a built-in, high-chrome agitator that’s attached to the impeller. The agitator helps keep solids suspended in the slurry, which maximizes the removal of cuttings and shavings.
“As a result, you’re not filling up your cellar with cuttings,” he says. “If you have too many cuttings sitting at the bottom of the hole, then you have to over drill … which costs a significant amount of time and money for a drilling rig and its employees.”
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Gonzo also uses the pumps to more efficiently remove water and debris – rock, sand and trash, for example – from pits used to store water for fracking; this is part of the process of reclaiming the land by backfilling the pits when drilling is finished.
“These pumps help save thousands of dollars because they’re so fast and they don’t leave a lot of debris behind,” Graham says. “They pump the water into a series of tanks where the solids separate and then are disposed of.”
Overall, Graham says the Hydra-Tech pumps help him provide efficient solutions for improving operating efficiencies.
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“Depending on how many wells a company is drilling, it can save them $2,500 a well in terms of increased productivity and efficiencies associated with drilling surface wells,” he says. “Without these pumps, it would take them a lot longer to drill wells, and it would be riskier in terms of the environmental impact.”
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