A patent pending downhole anti-gas-locking tool for rod pumps:
Embodying thousands of hours in design, prototyping and testing, is now ready for field deployment.
Improves production and rod pump efficiency by equipping a rod pump with a means of sensing and overcoming gas-dominant pump conditions.

Eliminate production losses and operating expenses due to:

Pump off conditions.
The temporary or permanent practice of placing rod pumps “on tap or tag” due to gas locking.
The requirement for high compression-ratio pumps.

How it works and value features:

Threads directly onto the bottom of the rod pump’s plunger. No special adapter required.
Production does not flow through the TiGR Priming Valve - it bypasses the tool and enters plunger intake ports at the top of the tool.
The tool fills with the fluids and/or gases from the pump barrel via ports at both the top and bottom. Filters keep solids from entering the tool.
When pumping oil, the ball floats and remains off its seat, placing the tool in a passive state.
When gas locked, the ball falls to its seat, placing the tool in an active state.
- At the end of the downstroke, the pressurized gas in the barrel equalizes with the inside of the tool’s chamber. With the ball seated, the pressure is trapped within the tool.
- During the upstroke, the differential pressure between the inside of the tool and the barrel begins to increase, creating an upward mechanical force on the travelling valve that unseats its ball and allows the pump to be primed with tubing fluids. This is accomplished in one stroke.
The integration with the plunger provides a solution with minimal operational risk or changes to pump configuration, no changes to pump installation procedures,, and only requiring additional barrel length to accommodate its length.
Designed for sour service.

How it’s different:

Vantage’s innovation captures the compression from the downstroke and uses that stored energy to create a mechanical force on the upstroke.
Conventional means of unseating the travelling valve, when gas locked, involve attempting to create enough compression in the barrel during the final portion of the downstroke to unseat the travelling valve by mechanical or pressure differential means. There has been limited success in creating enough force to unseat the travelling valve by these means due to the small equalization volume available.

Applications. The TiGR Priming Valve is designed to operate in wellbore environments where:

Well history shows regular evidence of gas locking or pump-off conditions.
The well is intermittently or permanently placed on tap.
The well is optionally equipped with pump off control and cacheable pump card data.