A positive displacement pumping system for use in deep wells includes a drive system and one or two pumps. In the preferred embodiment, the drive system includes an electrical motor, a speed reducer, and a rotary-to-reciprocal motion converter. Alternatively, the drive system includes a windmill, a variable transmission, and a counterbalance. The counterbalance can be either weights or a second alternating pump. The pumps include a central hollow discharge tube and one or more vertically aligned pumping chambers in fluid communication with the central discharge tube. Within each pumping chamber, a valve arrangement, which includes a piston or shuttle member and fluid intakes, causes fluid to fill and then drain from the pumping chambers as the central hollow discharge tube reciprocates. In operation, the drive system causes the central hollow discharge tube in the pump to reciprocate and thereby cause the fluid to travel from each pumping chamber into to the central discharge tube. In the preferred embodiment, fluid is pumped on both the upstroke and downstroke of the central discharge tube. Alternatively, fluid is discharged on only the upstroke. Fluid from the central discharge tube is discharged from the pump into a discharge field. The amount of fluid discharged on each stroke depends on the number and size of pumping chambers and the length of the stroke. A greater number of pumping chambers causes a greater discharge of fluid at a higher velocity into the discharge field.
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