KAUZ-TV: NewsChannel 6 Now | Wichita Falls, TXA cleaner, more effective way to pump oil

A cleaner, more effective way to pump oil

With Texoma at the center of the oil belt, it can attract businesses from all over the world.  When new businesses come, jobs soon follow.  One unique oil company could open huge manufacturing opportunities in Wichita Falls.

Airwell Oil and Gas started in Perth, Australia.  Now the company has brought its new, clean idea for oil pumping right here to wichita falls where there are a lot of stripper wells -- wells that are nearing the end of their production.  This new technology can pump oil down to the last drop.

Many oil well owners might be all too familiar with driving through the mud to maintain their pumps.  But Airwell's founder, Alan Brown, has pressurized well systems with radio signals that let him monitor all of the pumps from the comfort of his own office.

"One of the major attractions of the system is it doesn't matter how much snow you got outside or how much mud there is in the field. We don't have to go to the field.  It's all monitored over the internet," Brown said

Instead of using the traditional pump jack, Airwell leases air compressors and underground air lines that allow well owners to get that last little bit of oil out of a well that other pumps can't get  to effectively.  That means they have clean pumps that don't leak and  their pipes are smaller than pump jack pipes.

"You simply have a pump vessel that you pressurize with gas, and that pushes the liquid to the surface and off to your separator," Brown said.

But what really makes their equipment convenient are the radio signals and wi-fi towers that send updates and information from each well straight to the internet.  Maintenance for the wells is next to zero.  So what does all this mean for Texoma?  According to Kevin Pearson, the Executive Vice President of Economic Development in the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce, a company like Airwell has jobs on the horizon.

"If they do start to manufacture product here, they have the potential to create new jobs in that manufacturing process," he said.

For now, well parts still come from 'Down Under', but Brown only plans to make about one more order from Australia.  Because he can power 50 wells with just one air compressor, he's expecting the idea to catch on.

"It's just a more efficient way of doing an old thing," he said.

Right now Airwell already has 17 wells in the ground -- 11 of them in Electra.  Although there's only minimal equipment at the well site, the air compressor can connect to wells up to ten miles away.

Spencer Blake.  Newschannel 6.