Rod Pumping Fundamentals and Dynamometer Analysis

Matt Raglin began working for Diagnostic Services (DSI) in 1985, traveling and analyzing rod pump wells first in the United States and later globally until it was purchased by Halliburton. In 1989, Raglin formed his first company, Reservoir Evaluation Services, which continued his work in the rod pump system analysis field. RES was sold to Wood Group in 1995.

From 1995 to 2001, Raglin was an independent consultant for rod pump analysis and design and he worked with many of the largest producers in the industry, including Shell, BP, Exxon, Occidental and Chevron. In 2001, Raglin began working for Lufkin Automation as the General Manager of Permian Operations. It was here he began a close working relationship with Dr. Sam Gibbs and Ken Nolen and was instrumental in helping design and introduced the industry to the SAM Controller, which is now used worldwide.

Raglin left Lufkin and formed Spirit Global Energy Solutions in 2008. Headquartered in Midland, the primary focus of Spirit Global was analyzing wells with portable dynograph and fluid level equipment. The company also provided remote analysis utilizing a SCADA host. Wanting to provide additional solutions to the industry, Raglin invented several patented downhole tools to mitigate gas and sand issues and a laser positioning device. Spirit Global also released the Genesis Controller, which is now known as the ChampionX Smarten Controller, under Raglin's guidance. Spirit Global had offices in every producing basin in the United States as well as regional operations in Canada. The company was purchased by Dover Artificial Lift in 2013 and now operates as ChampionX.

Raglin formed WellWorx Energy in 2018 with a mission to offer in-person trainings and webinars focusing on rod pump principles and best practices as well as dynagraph interpretation. These education-based solutions were taken a step further and he began to design and patent the ToolWorx product line of downhole tools. Raglin currently holds 14 patents and his designs are focused on gas and sand mitigation efforts. The product line includes the Super Max System, the Helix Sand ByPass, the Halo, the Dominator and the ESP Gas ByPass with additional products planned for the future.

Seeing additional needs within the industry, Raglin purchased GreenShot LLC from Dr. Sam Gibbs and Ken Nolen. GreenShot is patented as the first fully permanent and automated fluid level system. It is also the only true 'green' system in existence, functioning without high-pressure nitrogen or C02 and instead utilizing the well's naturaly-producing casing gas. 

In the last 25 years, Raglin has taught hundreds of Rod Pump classes across the world. Throughout his career, Raglin has published more than a dozen technical papers and is partnered with multiple Texas universities to organize internships with field training as well as served as a guest lecturer to offer insight into the petroleum industry.

Kenneth B. (Ken) Nolen attended Texas A&M College and graduated in 1957 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. Upon graduation, he joined Shell Oil Company as a Production Engineer. His career was temporarily halted for three years while he served in the U.S. Air Force as a Weather Officer at Dow Air Force Base in Bangor, Maine. Returning to Shell, he gained further experience in artificial lift as production engineering section head.

In 1970, he left Shell and teamed up with Dr. S. G. Gibbs to become co-founder and Vice President of Nabla Corporation, a high-tech services and manufacturing firm in Midland, Texas. While there, he pursued his career-long passion of optimizing production from artificially lifted wells. Lufkin Automation acquired Nabla in August 1997. Nolen continued his career as Technical Coordinator for the new firm until his retirement in 2002.

Retirement was short lived and he started working as an artificial lift consultant specializing in technical support and training. Again, Nolen and Dr. Gibbs teamed up in 2014 and formed GreenShot LLC, a company specializing in automated oil well fluid level technology. WellWorx Energy acquired GreenShot in 2018 and Nolen is currently employed by WellWorx as R&D Advisor.

Nolen has been a key contributor to the art and science of artificial lift his entire career. He was a co-developer with Dr. Gibbs of wellsite diagnostic methods (dynamometers, fluid level sounders and pump-off controllers) for sucker rod pumping systems. These diagnostic methods are widely used within the industry to remotely access data through automated continuously monitoring systems.

Nolen has been active in SPE his entire career and is a registered professional engineer emeritus in Colorado and New Mexico. He has eight patents, has written textbooks on artificial lift subjects and has written or co-written numerous technical papers to serve the industry. In the past 50 years, Nolen has taught more than 200 schools on artificial lift (mainly rod pumping technology) throughout the world.