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This Failure Analysis Guide is intended to give a general outline of common failure modes of Progressing Cavity Pumping Systems along with their respective root causes and possible solutions. In order to properly understand some of the failure modes covered herein and their respective root causes and solutions, an understanding of progressing cavity technology is crucial. It will be done by first reviewing the basic progressing cavity pump components followed by some basic progressing cavity pump theory. This guide is not intended to give final answers on progressing cavity pump component failures but should help in evaluating whether further investigations are necessary.
This document is reproduced by permission of the authors and may be printed or downloaded only for personal use.
Ken Saveth is a graduate of Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Petroleum Engineering Technology with 35 years of experience in the oil & gas industry in the field of artificial lift; primarily in the area of Progressing Cavity Pumping and Electric Submersible Pumping Systems. Ken has provided global technical support in the areas of training, design, application, deployment & troubleshooting of the progressing cavity pumping as well as electric submersible pumping systems to the industry at large. He has worked for many of the major Progressing Cavity & Electric Submersible pump manufacturers. Ken is also an Instructor or PetroSkills for their Fundamental Progressing Cavity as well as their Fundamental Electric Submersible Pump courses. He has chaired & co-chaired numerous SPE conferences & workshops as well as served on dozens of SPE committees internationally as well as authored several SPE technical papers. Currently Ken is Engineering Manager for Progressing Cavity Pumps, Gas Lift & HPUs for Baker Hughes, a GE Company.
