A High-Speed Look At Downhole Oil Well Cleaning

With the ability to record up to 1,000,000 fps, Vision Research’s Phantom v2511 high-speed camera helped Olson Technologies see how their Plasma Blaster unclogs underground oil wells.

Much like a typical household shower, oil wells experience a buildup of mineral deposit after extended use, causing them to become clogged. Pumping oil therefore becomes less efficient— driving up costs especially if the well needs to be shut down for a long period of time. Current methods used to clean clogged oil wells are only moderately effective. They also tend to be harmful to the environment and require costly downtime. An alternative is to dig more wells, abandoning the clogged ones, but this also raises environmental and cost-related concerns.