CHOPS not dead?
No, CHOPS is not a karate move.
Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand was one of the big heavy oil innovations of the 1990s. Foamy oil and sand were produced to surface together, and elastomer screw pumps finally had their moment.
For a while, CHOPS was everywhere. It delivered big production rates from heavy oil wells—until it didn’t. Today, those wells are suspended.
But CHOPS may not be finished...
Tags: Thermal, Heavy Oil, AI in oil and gas
Granger Low 2026-08-10