Workover
Remedial downhole work on an existing well — cleaning out, repairing, or re-stimulating it to restore or boost production rather than drill a new hole.
A workover is maintenance or repair work performed downhole on a well that is already drilled, aimed at restoring or increasing its production. Typical jobs include cleaning out scale or sand, repairing or replacing tubing and downhole pumps, re-perforating, fixing a casing leak, or re-stimulating a zone. It is cheaper than drilling a new well and is a routine part of keeping older wells alive.
Workovers are paid for by the working interest as part of normal operating cost, so they show up in the well's economics rather than on a royalty owner's check. They sit alongside artificial lift as the everyday tools an operator uses to manage a declining well along its decline curve.
For a royalty owner, a workover that pulls production back up is a quiet positive — it can lift a check that had been fading without any action on your part.