scope:

FOREWORD

Artificial lift represents an increasingly important part of the oil business. In fact, at the time of this writing, over 90% of the oil wells in the United States used some form of artificial lift. The four basic types of artificial lift used in the oil industry are: rod pumping, electric submersible pumping, hydraulic pumping, and gas lift. As the name implies, gas lift is the only one of the artificial lift systems that does not use some form of mechanical pump to physically force the fluid from one place to another. Because of this phenomenon, gas lift has certain advantages over the other systems in some instances and occupies a rather unique and important place as a lift mechanism.

This manual is under the jurisdiction of the Executive Committee on Training and Development, Exploration & Production Department, American Petroleum Institute. It is intended to familiarize operating personnel with the use of gas lift as an artificial lift system. It includes information on the basic principles of gas lift, the choice of gas lift equipment, how various types of gas lift equipment work, and how a gas lift system should be designed. Information is also included on monitoring, adjusting, regulating, and trouble-shooting gas lift equipment.

The first edition of this manual was issued in 1965. A second edition was issued in 1984, and editorial errata were published in 1986 and incorporated in a 1988 reprint of the manual. This third edition was developed as an editorial update for consistency with recent API gas lift standards.