Preventative Maintenance
As you may have already noticed, we love to both educate as well as find ways to save you time and money. And on a daily basis, we find there are always ample opportunities for us to do both.
With that said, below is easily one of the most important pieces of advice that we ever give:
Regular scheduled well maintenance is easily the best way to save you both time & money. Period.
Plunger Lifts: Inspections are key
We see it all the time. Plunger lifts, being underground, are all too often victims of “out of sight out of mind” compared to the well’s surface portions or moving parts like motors, and simply get forgotten.
But the reality is LOTS can go wrong when they are forgotten.
Regular Maintenance Just Makes Sense
- Easy to budget – a fixed cost per well, no mileage charge.
- Catching a potential issue before it occurs means much lower cost to repair
- A study a few years ago concluded that deferred plunger lift repairs costs users ~450% more vs regular maintenance & servicing costs!
- Helps keep them off the abandonment list – keeping them a positive on your balance sheet, not a negative.
Our Advice = Your Potential Savings!
- We always recommend a preferred maintenance cycle of every 6 months (min) to avoid most breakages
- In a mature gas field, typically 95% of all wells will require a plunger after ~3 yrs. If you opt to not add a plunger, note you will need to swab the well regularly which could cost upwards of $8-10k/month!
- So simply run the numbers yourself… 2 maintenance inspections per year (parts & labor) estimated at ~$600/yr versus $6-8000 for just a single well swab!
Grey hair and decades of experience mean you can trust us when we say it’s time to start thinking of your plunger lifts like you do your home furnace or water heater – a little scheduled maintenance in the budget can prevent those potentially significant, unexpected repairs & expenses.